Desplat can be hit or miss for me - I recognize his immense talent and particularly his abundant gift for orchestration, but often I fail to connect emotionally with his music - but thanks to Jon Broxton's most recent (and always welcome) under-the-radar round up, I was turned on to this fantastic score.
It has all the usual Desplat hallmarks, with delicate orchestrations (often piano-forward), complicated dramatic ideas never crowding one another, and a strong thematic base, but it comes together in a particularly compelling way. Jon rightfully points out that anyone who first turned on to Desplat in the early aughts will like this. I agree.
The first track is an especially curious creature; in its harmonic progressions it sounds like if someone rendered a Giorgio Moroder tune with an orchestra, which I suppose in its own way is an ode to Morricone. I mean that as a compliment.
As precise as Desplat can be, the score also contains more abstract passages in which he explores heartbreak and tragedy.
I highly recommend reading Jon's review; he's way more articulate than I am.
I listened the album on Youtube andwhile the first two or three tracks were fine I lost interest during the following tracks. It seems that either Desplat stopped writing in his lush, melodic style or every filmmaker he works with asks him to leave that style behind. I really liked Desplat but in the past couple of years there were only two scores by him I could connect to: Eiffel and The Lost King.
