Sony Classical release Theodore Shapiro's score for St. Vincent. The movie sees Maggie, a single mother, move into a new home in Brooklyn with her 12-year old son, Oliver. Forced to work long hours, she has no choice but to leave Oliver in the care of their new neighbour, Vincent, a retired curmudgeon with a penchant for alcohol and gambling. An odd friendship soon blossoms between the improbable pair. Together with a pregnant stripper named Daka, Vincent brings Oliver along on all the stops that make up his daily routine – the race track, a strip club, and the local dive bar. Vincent helps Oliver grow to become a man, while Oliver begins to see in Vincent something that no one else is able to: a misunderstood man with a good heart...

Theodore Shapiro's score for St. Vincent contains 20 tracks (35 min, 44 sec) and is a light-hearted, fluffy score. While it probably works well in the movie, it sounds a little too twee when listened to in isolation.

The majority of the tracks seem to act as neat, short music cues and as such sound more like they're designed to sit in the background and not be noticed. There's very little here that I'd be keen to listen to again (with the possible exception of 'Broken Glass') Sadly this is another score that really only works in conjunction with the onscreen action.

5

Darren Rea