I would give Thomas Newman a hearty thumbs up for his soundtrack here. I must admit, I am totally attached to the story within the movie of White Oleander, having been in similar circumstances while growing up.
I noticed that Thomas was getting bad reviews for what he did with the music for the movie, I think that someone needed to say that there is disagreement, starting with me apparently. I am saddened by the flack thrown at him.
To me, the music couldn't have been better. And I feel cheated that Rhapsody shows the score as being on Rhapsody with a Google search. Yet it's not on their data base. I would love to have that score without Russian torrents involved. So I'll have to track it down on Amazon since Rhapsody can't be trusted for accuracy.
When feelings are involved, corporate schemes seem even more heartless than when there is no emotion involved. (meh)
So I'm looking around and seeing that 'theme, style, motif, musical comprehension' apparently wasn't necessary to make me relive so much. I'm telling you, it was fine and I wouldn't change any of it.
Was there anyone giving Mr. Newman a hard time about this who suffered in their life? Sometimes I hate critics. And I would hate the job of being one.