One of the biggest film surprises in the last years, M. Night Shyamalan's magnificent film benefits of an extraordinary score of the sometimes irregular James Newton Howard, this time managing with expert hands the delicate threads of the ghostly plot. Exquisitely orchestrated, with prevalence of the piano and the strings, accompanied by brief electronic touches and scarce aggressive passages, Howard understands very well the most personal side and attractiveness of the plot moving away from excessive horror references, using a balanced mixture of tonal and atonal sounds (Malcolm's Story / Cole's Secret) and a magnificent solo horn present in the most opportune moments; the Californian composer's surprising versatility, indistinctly able of putting music to a comedy of the caliber of My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) as well to a thriller as A Perfect Murder (1998), gives some of his more achieved pages as a result (Kyra's Tape). A round work of maturity that should be listened several times to appreciate its true and tragic human dimension. M.A.F.

/ VARESE SARABANDE VSD-6061 / 30'

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