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While Desplat has been known in the years since then to fill his scores with frenzies of activity, often exploring two or three lines of musical action simultaneously, this score is closer to an emulation of John Barry's more restrained dramatic style of the 1990's. The temperament of Lust, Caution's score is extremely restrained and subtle, forgoing any really deep expressions of passion to underline the strained suspense and societal mores in play. That technique won the hearts of Deplat's growing following amongst film music critics (many of whom listed this as one of the five best overall efforts of 2007, joining Desplat's concurrent The Golden Compass), but a lack of genuine passion ultimately makes Lust, Caution one of the most overrated scores of the entire decade. There is no doubt that Desplat's musical constructs and their evolution through Lust, Caution are intelligently conceived. The application of waltzes reminiscent of The Luzhin Defence represents higher culture and the target's wife; aside from the two specific "Dinner Waltz" tracks, the concluding "An Empty Bed" is a frightfully effective return to that mode. The younger woman receives a melancholy theme anchored by three notes in an elegant minor mode to suggest a love triangle. Heard first in "Falling Rain," this idea culminates in its only ensemble performance in "The Angel" at the pivotal moment in the film. The suite rendition of this idea ("Wong Chia Chi's Theme") is a highlight. The slow death of the melody in "The South Quarry" and "An Empty Bed" is quite compelling. The students turned resistance fighters start innocuously with a playful idea early in the film as well, occupying "Playacting" and "Tsim Sha Tsui Stroll" with brighter similarities to Desplat's usual dramatic tendencies. In the mid-section of the score, the secondary phrases of the main theme for the woman evolve into an identity for Shanghai and her target, yielding some of the sequences that will remind listeners of Barry's tepid side in the drama genre, especially in "The Secret." Solo performances of this secondary theme by violin or electric cello exist in "Remember Everything" and "Seduction," sometimes punctuated by chopping bass string rhythms of accelerated, aggressive intent.

Whereas the thematic elements described above are the clear upside of Desplat's work for Lust, Caution on the whole, the instrumental depth and performance aspects of the score are its downfall. The ensemble consists of strings and piano for most of its length, plucked and tapped accents from percussion more common than rare brass accompaniment meant simply to beef up the sound for the suite track. Desplat layers his instrumental lines well, sometimes barely plucking the three primary notes from the main theme in the background of other activity. But never in the score do you feel a genuine sense of passion, suspicion, romance, danger, or any other heightened emotion. The composer is so careful to keep his tone tastefully restrained that he ends up producing sonic wallpaper in many parts. Gain levels are so low throughout the album presentation (an odd circumstance given that damn near everything these days is pressed to maximum tolerances to artificially boost importance in the music) that long parts may pass by at a barely audible threshold. Even the slightly dissonant passages that open and close the album are handled with gloves and at a distance, almost as if to barely suggest trouble but not actually extend that idea to any substantial degree. Some of those who have not jumped on the Desplat bandwagon after his first decade of major international recognition have claimed that he is a master of writing safely inoffensive music, never one to take significant stylistic chances for any assignment. In many ways, Lust, Caution is one of the best pieces of evidence supporting this theory, proving the composer's ability to create the right sound for the right picture but not able to add that additional level of emotional attachment for the listener to take the score to the next level. It's a competent score and a mostly effortless listening experience, but you can't help but get the impression that an extra dose of passion (if only even in the conductor's directions during the performances) could have truly fulfilled the potential inherent in this composition. The album features the seamless inclusion of one classical source piece and for some reason shifts two of the score's interior pieces (rejected cues?) to "bonus tracks" at the end of the product. Expect a fine, solid three-star album with two or three highlights fighting to transcend the cloudy, depressing haze of the score's entirety.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Alexandre Desplat reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.39 (in 31 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.22 (in 16,383 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 59:54