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The Lookout
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Composed and Produced by:
Co-Orchestrated and Conducted by:
Chris P. Bacon
Co-Orchestrated by:
Brad Dechter
Co-Orchestrated and Additional Music by:
Stuart Michael Thomas
Additional Music by:
Clay Duncan
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LABEL & RELEASE DATE
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Hollywood Records
(March 13th, 2007)
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ALBUM AVAILABILITY
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Digital commercial release only.
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AWARDS
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None.
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ALSO SEE
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Buy it... for the warmth and occasional attitude of James Newton
Howard's guitar-driven themes for the main character, the highlights of
this work worth bypassing the bulk of suspense material.
Avoid it... if ten minutes of emotive and inspiring highlights from
those contemporary stylings cannot merit an otherwise dull and
forgettable remainder.
BUY IT
 | | Howard |
The Lookout: (James Newton Howard) Acclaimed
screenwriter Scott Frank only took the director's chair a few times, and
2007's The Lookout was his first such attempt. His story was a
more engaging take on the typical bank robbery topic, the main character
a young man mentally injured by an auto accident and working as a night
janitor in the targeted bank. When criminals who had taunted him in high
school seek to take advantage of his position, he initially goes along
with their plans, especially as they throw a young woman at him for
seduction purposes. But he ultimately hesitates and finds himself both a
victim and an equalizer in the crime. The movie was well received
because of Frank's three-dimensional characters, the main one especially
explored well because of his struggles with amnesia and other
impairments. Still, despite the movie's high-quality attributes
countering a questionable shooting location in Canada, it lost money
overall, likely because it lacked the star power needed to fill theatre
seats. Among the aggressive production value aspirations for The
Lookout was the hiring of composer James Newton Howard for its
score. The assignment wasn't major for Howard, who utilized some
ghostwriting assistance from regular collaborators Stuart Michael Thomas
and Clay Duncan for the occasion, and they had to contend with a variety
of song placements on screen, limiting the length of the score. Howard
dabbled in a variety of lesser drama and suspense scores during this
period in his career, and this one shares the most characteristics with
his later Nightcrawler in terms of its blend of orchestra and
rock elements. That orchestra is joined by acoustic guitar, piano, and a
variety of percussive effects per the composer's typical methodology,
aided by familiar electronics that include fairly standard looped
elements and bass droning. A synthetic choral element is applied at the
climax of "Heist (Part 2)" in conservative but effective fashion. But
more enhanced in this work are the modern rock instruments like
keyboards, electronic guitar, and drum kit. The success or failure of
this score will depend on your embrace of these contemporary tones,
because they provide all the highlights of the narrative. The score
thrives when Howard unleashes coolness for the main character with these
instruments. Otherwise, the entire work's tone has a bit of a foggy
atmosphere to it as representation of main character's mind, and
listeners may disregard the whole because of this rather dull touch in
so many of the cues.
Generally, the suspense passages from Howard and his
crew for The Lookout are occasionally interesting, but the action
portions are really poor, the exception being the second half of "Heist
(Part 2)," which blends the coolness factor into the fray with success.
There isn't much obnoxious dissonance in most of the cues, but rather
limp and uninspired noise. For instance, the percussive applications in
the otherwise atmospheric "Lewis Taken Hostage" are ineffective, and the
conclusive "Chris Saves Lewis" is extremely underwhelming. There are a
pair of elusive but quite good themes in the score, the primary one for
the main character a friendly, hip, and slightly sad representation of a
damaged young man you want to root for. There's a slight bluegrass
personality to this theme's more expressive performances. This theme
opens score on acoustic guitar and tapped percussion in "I Wake Up" with
reserved optimism. An interlude sequence at 1:27 adds strings for
compelling secondary phrasing before the cue closes with the main
phrasing again. An even better ensemble performance dominates the first
portion of "The Night Janitor," multiple guitar lines overlapping with
the strings and percussion for a vibrant moment. In this cue, the
interlude sequence steps in briefly at 0:34, shifting gears to a far
more somber state before the theme regains some life late. The idea
accelerates on the guitars in "Casing the Bank," transferring over to
electric guitars, and turns faintly cyclical in the latter half of
"Heist (Part 1)." It achieves a victorious stance from the both
ensembles at the height of "Heist (Part 2)," and that mode continues in
the latter half of "Start at the End" with genuine coolness. This theme
emerges from the secondary theme in "To Be Forgiven" for a distinctly
positive rock finish, thankfully not quite to Nightcrawler parody
levels. That second theme is for the man's aspirations and escape from
his mental confines, heard with hope on soft keyboarding over synthetic
meanderings in "Fantasy" but vague and deconstructed in "Luvlee, Bone
and Gary." It tempts lightly on electric guitar in the middle of "Heist
(Part 1)" and is barely intact in "Imagining Kelly," but the theme
returns to its "Fantasy" mode on piano at the start of "To Be Forgiven"
for redemption. These two themes are hidden gems in an otherwise
uninspiring, forgettable whole, five or six of their performances badly
begging for a suite arrangement. The listening experience on the
36-minute album has few loud, disruptive parts, and some tracks are
cross-faded. The strength of the two themes salvages this work, but they
could be easy to miss at a casual pass. They offer Howard's contemporary
mode with emotive skill, and guitar enthusiasts will especially
appreciate their warmth and occasional attitude.
*** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Newton Howard reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.26
(in 81 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.25
(in 89,297 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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Total Time: 35:56
• 1. I Wake Up (2:20)
• 2. The Night Janitor (2:30)
• 3. Harvest Money (1:17)
• 4. Fantasy (1:04)
• 5. Casing the Bank (1:08)
• 6. Money is Power (1:26)
• 7. Luvlee, Bone and Gary (1:50)
• 8. Second Thoughts (1:01)
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• 9. Heist (Part 1) (4:33)
• 10. Heist (Part 2) (5:47)
• 11. Lewis Taken Hostage (2:32)
• 12. Start at the End (2:17)
• 13. Imagining Kelly (1:18)
• 14. Chris Saves Lewis (4:26)
• 15. To Be Forgiven (2:50)
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There exists no official packaging for this album.
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