Buy it... if you often find yourself relaxing to the undemanding tones of James Horner's similar work for The Spitfire Grill and To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.

Avoid it... if you expect the violin solos by Joshua Bell to provide the score with either a sense of depth or a unique personality.

Horner

Iris: (James Horner) A depressing Miramax drama aimed at Oscar gold in late 2001, Iris is a grim, realistic portrayal of an inglorious end to a vivacious spirit caused by the Alzheimer disease. Based on her husband's book about her life, Iris documents the relationship between he and writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch, switching between the settings of the 1950's and 1990's to show not only the maturation of the bond between them through the years, but also a switching of roles of dominance as Murdoch is reduced to the mentality of a young child by the end of her life. The film netted three Academy Award nominations in the major acting categories for Judi Dench and Kate Winslet (who both portray Murdoch) and Jim Broadbent, whose career reached its pinnacle in 2001 with this production and Moulin Rouge. The shifting between the past and present settings of the dramatic story perpetuated a style of English dramatism and folk music that gave composer James Horner an opportunity to write a score in a field that had been dominated by the likes of Richard Robbins and Patrick Doyle. After stirring his fans and detractors into a frenzy with the size and energy of Enemy at the Gates and the stylistically familiar A Beautiful Mind earlier in 2001, James Horner finished his year's activities with one of the most reflective and underwhelming scores of the time. Small character dramas that rely heavily on superior acting and writing were not a completely foreign environment for Horner. One of his most acclaimed underscores of the 1990's was written for the tiny budget film The Spitfire Grill five years before, joined by To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday a short time later. Both of those scores offered Horner's collectors a glimpse of what he could write when not trying to impress his audience with an overwhelming dose of orchestral weight. Some maintain strongly that such scores continue to show little ingenuity on the part of Horner, and while The Spitfire Grill is highlighted by some truly unique material in the composer's career, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday is a much more unoriginal piece.

The descriptor of "unoriginal" applies, too, to Iris, a score with all the functionality and ingredients of a dramatic winner, but always one step away from achieving the kind of heart that made The Spitfire Grill so genuinely alluring. The score for Iris exceeds the other two in its consistency of harmony and major key optimism. Its simplicity is superbly represented by the unassuming performances of the solo violin. Joshua Bell was the most recent in a growing string of notable soloists to grace Horner's recording stages, and while his contribution to Iris won't cause an explosion of interest, it softly and delicately achieves its goal. The sense of wrestling of the inner soul is captured well in the score, not to any excess or even great toil, but the atmosphere of a personal journey is conveyed with adequate emotion and subdued volume. Soothing in parts and unremarkable in others, the score offers little excitement to break the contemplative ponderings of its title character and her husband. The title theme is so seamlessly integrated into the musical narrative that it won't really jump out at you until late in "Part 5," when a full statement of the idea with the power of the string-heavy orchestra in unison enunciates it clearly. The opening cue on the album is the formal treatment of this theme, featuring Bell's most prominently placed recordings over some of the score's fullest and most satisfying accompaniment. No dramatic evolution of Iris's theme will ever burst through in the film, and aside from a quick splash of diversity, mood, and instrumentation in "Part 6," there is remarkably nothing to hinder Bell's violin and the single woodwind or piano that performs the soft duet that weaves throughout the work. The brass section is often muted, unless a French horn is meandering along the usual, lengthy Horner-specific path of descending measures of music. The relatively short album (by Horner standards) will fly past in a heartbeat, leaving the listener pleasantly satisfied, but without inspiration or even, perhaps, much interest in many repeat listens.

	Only $9.99

The irony involving the sound of Iris is that it mirrors much of the score in Horner's career that was widely hailed as being his most original. The knowledgeable Horner collector will hear a considerable portion of The Spitfire Grill in Iris, though without any of the spunk or guitar flair that defined The Spitfire Grill as a truly unique effort. Instead, the forest-like atmosphere in the reflective moments of the former score are faintly repeated in Iris, and the violin solos by Bell in 2001 are only different from those heard in The Spitfire Grill because of his more famous name. The meandering horn solos are a guaranteed ticket to Horner's memory lane. The sometimes dull nature of the music, in its seemingly endless pursuit of floating atmosphere instead of the focus of character, will easily lose the interest of many listeners, and especially those who didn't like the earlier, similar Horner dramas in the first place. One notable aspect of Iris is that, on a few occasions, it acknowledges the English folk music that eventually prevails in the context of the film. Horner almost allows the performances to pick up a slight rhythm that would lend itself well to that genre in a few places. The traditional folk tune "A Lark in the Clear Air," performed decently by actress Kate Winslet, is integrated throughout the final orchestral cue on the album, "Part 8." For a score that is so heavy on the side of dramatic contemplation, Iris is only somewhat effective at building a personality, and it is that lack of aspiration or distinctive rhythm or instrumentation (even with the violin) that causes it to stand as a solid, though unrewarding listening experience. An extremely intimate sound quality, accentuated by the singular and constant whole notes strung along by the cellos and basses, contribute further to the score's lack of depth. Despite the strong pairing of Bell and Horner, Iris is only average, an enjoyable background listen for a time or two, but with a strangely unremarkable personality. It's very clear why the Academy voted to nominate Horner's A Beautiful Mind in 2001 over this well-placed competitor; the difference in memorability is extreme. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13 (in 98 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.25 (in 184,725 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.