Buy it... if you're game for what sounds like a late-1990's John Debney interpretation of John Williams' famous children's score for Home Alone.

Avoid it... if the grace and charm of a full orchestral ensemble and boy's choir are not an attraction unless they hit you repeatedly over the head with obvious thematic statements.

Wide Awake: (Edmund Choi) While the early films of M. Night Shyamalan may not be popular titles, rest assured that they deal with the writer and director's consistent interest in cultures and religions. After five years, Shyamalan followed his debut, Praying with Anger, with Wide Awake, a family drama that deals with themes also common to his films: children and the afterlife. After a young boy's grandfather dies, he embarks on a search for God through his Catholic school, ultimately learning about life and death and his relationship with the remainder of his family. The film's warmth gained it critical praise, though Shyamalan was still a year away from breaking very suddenly through into the mainstream. It's difficult, in retrospect, to remember that before Shyamalan's lengthy and successful collaboration with composer James Newton Howard came several projects on which Shyamalan worked with Edmund Choi for the scores. The two met in college and Choi scored a short film for his fellow student in 1991. Two years later, Choi provided the music for Praying with Anger and, when Shyamalan sold the script for Wide Awake to Miramax in 1996, Choi was the first member brought on board the production team. Choi's career has always promised more than it delivered, teasing the mainstream without experiencing much success in it. His work for Wide Awake involves a 90-member orchestra and the American Boychoir, which in some ways may seem like overkill for a budget family film of this size. Inevitably, though, a beautifully rendered orchestral score can extend the heart of any feature film, and Choi's score here expectedly overachieves. The few Choi scores that have managed to find their way onto albums for film score collectors have tended to betray their inspiration, with perhaps his most famous temp track imitation coming a few years later for The Dish. The score for Wide Awake is influenced strongly by both John Debney and John Williams, and, in an interesting twist, sounds as though it were a Debney interpretation of Williams' famous children's score for Home Alone.

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Like Home Alone, the Wide Awake score develops multiple light-hearted themes for the orchestra, with an occasional crescendo of melodramatic intent. Additionally, interspersed throughout the album are lyrical and wordless carols performed by the choir. The most impressive moments of the score are those that feature both groups in unison, creating a result that is very reminiscent of the "Somewhere in my Memory" performances from the Home Alone scores. The cues without the choral addition offer the safe, child-like enthusiast that John Debney inserts into such scores as Little Giants and Lost and Found, among countless others. Bounding, percussive rhythms of an obviously upbeat nature carry several cues with a restraint in scope often heard in Debney's music for similar films. "The Bucket Chase" contains a mood-busting parody of the Mission: Impossible theme that seems like yet another page pulled from the Debney playbook. There is a distinct similarity between one of Choi's sub-themes and Williams' theme from JFK, too. The title theme for Wide Awake is a superb accomplishment for Choi, though its performances are few and it's not particularly well-integrated into the mass of the underscore. Its most attractive, full ensemble renderings exist in "The Snow," "The Race," and the conclusive "A Little Like Me." In between the highlights of the score are many less-descript minutes of conservative material. The song-like passages by the choir should be mentioned; they seem inspired at times by classical religious hymns, but contain enough individual character to sound original. The short "Gloria" vocals are probably the best of that group. The choir's integration into both "Brickman" and "A Little Like Me" is very effective. Aside from these charming standout tracks, the score ultimately washes into an average listening experience. It was released only as a promotional item from SuperTracks in 1998, though it did not sell out as quickly as other promo offerings from the label. The album includes several cues that did not make the final cut of the film, including (curiously) the outstanding six minutes between "The Snow" and "School Days." In sum, the score can be better classified as soothingly pleasant than uniquely memorable. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download