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| CD SLEEVE |  |
| DETAILS | Released
02 November 2009 | | Composer
Marvin Hamlisch | | Label
Silva Screen |
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The Informant!
 Review
There's a particular pleasure to be had with the score for Steven Soderbergh’s knockabout tale of corporate whistleblowing, marking as it does the only-too-welcome return of composer Marvin Hamlisch to film music after a 13-year hiatus.
To today’s audiences, he may not immediately spring to mind as one of the greats. However, it’s worth remembering that in the 1970s the versatile Hamlisch was a celebrated, John Williams-sized star talent, scoring a raft of hit films (The Sting, The Way We Were) and writing hit singles (classic Bond tune Nobody Does It Better) which, added to his theatre work, made him an all-round awards-magnet.
At first glance it seems an incongruous pairing, but it quickly becomes apparent why Soderbergh would want him lured back to the fold: Hamlisch’s signature and masterful jazz stylings — both elegant and jaunty — are ideally placed to represent the mercurial imagination of Matt Damon’s Mark Whitacre, the doughy corporate drone who fancies himself as a super-spy.
The opening track offers up a finely-nuanced theme for the beleaguered Whitacre — echoed throughout — anchored on a lounge jazz piano, backed with trombone and harmonica parts that
are both plaintive and romantic. With Meet Mark and After Car, Hamlisch employs a jazz ensemble to generate bouncy ragtime motifs for Whitacre’s optimistic demeanour, but the man’s grand delusions are superbly captured in the dynamic likes of Car Meeting, Sellout and Golf, channelling the likes of John Barry and Lalo Schifrin with their twangy guitar and exuberant horn sections.
One of the more intriguing scores of late, it’s also one of the most charming, with Hamlisch offering up a delightful musical throwback that’s crafted with real panache. Beyond that, it’s vastly refreshing to have some old-school fare that proudly stands apart from the often cookie-cutter nature of modern Hollywood scores. Welcome back, sir.
Reviewer: Danny Graydon
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