In the most basic sense, the style of Davey's compositions is naturally similar in its lyrical and light-hearted personality to that of Stephan Warbeck, who had already won over the world with his music for Shakespeare in Love. Davey's close regard to the classical construction of his music, and his prior experience in the scoring of Shakespearean stories, put him in the same musical league as Warbeck and Patrick Doyle. These parallels in composition can be heard in The Tailor of Panama, especially during the several grandiose, fully orchestral performances of governmental fanfares contained within. The title theme and its underlying rhythm (a dedicated motif for the element of intrigue throughout the score) both exude a flash of pomp and spirit that could very well accompany a Shakespearean drama, but the score is ultimately saved by a balance of this lyrical bravado and Davey's keen insertion of Latin elements into the mix. No better of an example of this exotic combination is the cue "Harry's Drive Through the Carnival," which melds a fantastically verbose performance of the adapted melody to "Todavia Cantamos" on strings with an exuberant flair of acoustic guitar. The influence of Victor Heredia's "Todavia Cantamos" remains consistent throughout the work, often informing cues that explore variations on the theme. Davey restrains the adaptation to a troubled viola solo in "Louisa's Confrontation and The Death of Micky Abraxis," exhibiting the impressive flexibility in manipulation heard in each of the score's ideas and contributing to a very cohesive whole. The original theme representing the title character delicately flutters in the score's opening and closing moments, also sometimes existing in slightly dissonant variants (such as the start of "Harry Unravels"). Its functionally is overshadowed by its rhythmic counterpart, a bass motif that Davey consistently uses to represent the element of espionage and adventure in the plot. Davey showed flashes of this kind of heavy, bass-oriented orchestral rhythm in Twelfth Night, but he never expanded upon it for that project. For The Tailor of Panama, however, Davey dwells on this single, simplistic bass string progression, accenting each measure with a blast of the low woodwinds, brass, harpsichord, and even an accordion for additional power.

Together, all of the rumbling, lower range elements of the orchestra prevail to set a rambling, ominous tone for the pace of the story. It's a great rhythm-setting device given the genre, and while some may find the idea tedious and droning, it's rather easy to adopt it as motivational inspiration. The final major element of The Tailor of Panama is its Latin flavor, which Davey accomplishes through the use of acoustic guitars and several choices of orchestration and thematic progression. At times, as in the wildly infectious "The Vibrating Bed," Davey kicks the guitar into full gear and produces a result not far from Rachel Portman's more comical moments of Chocolat. During the action sequences, and especially in "The Ambassador, the Chase, and the Helicopter," one could get the impression that this score is also an undeniably fun cross between Warbeck's Shakespeare in Love and Jerry Goldsmith's Under Fire. Even with the Latin elements expressing themselves fluently throughout, the score never becomes too ethnically foreign for those who would rather attach themselves to the classical structure of the rest of the score. Davey's greatest accomplishment here is his ability to take all of the different aspects of his music for The Tailor of Panama and bring them together in a fabulous crescendo as the film reaches its exciting climax. In very few scores do you hear this kind of rhythmic effectiveness, with the score's momentum constantly maintaining your interest. The final track offers a surprising rendition of the "Todavia Cantamos" theme with a longing female vocal performance that steals the show in a way that would have been further welcomed had it been worked into a few sequences earlier. Overall, the careful balance between the grand, free flowing themes, the Latin guitar and keyboards, and the rhythmic orchestral bass is very well handled in The Tailor of Panama. The music has a little bit of everything, and yet it stands together so well as a whole that you wish other scores could balance themselves with equal success. It's potentially a "hit or miss" kind of prospect, meaning that it could completely leave some listeners out in the cold due to its flair for the melodramatic and its occasionally bizarre ethnic diversity. One can only wonder how the Irish Film Orchestra managed to pull off such a convincing Central American performance, but they did it, and The Tailor of Panama on album is a guilty pleasure in waiting for many film score collectors.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download