Search - John Ottman :: Trapped (Score)

There are probably no two more mathematically grounded sciences in filmmaking than film editing and scoring. In that light, John Ottman's otherwise unique dual career as editor and composer makes perfect sense. This thriller by director Luis Mandocki may have been hampered by a formulaic script, but certainly not by Ottman's eerie, evocative orchestral score. Leaning on the subtle, percussively modernistic canon of composers like Jerry Goldsmith and Thomas Newman, Ottman creates a shifting, nervous soundscape filled with tension and foreshadowings of impending doom at every turn. Its restrained, pastoral moments are almost too quiet, a subtle device that ratchets up the suspense with every held chord, languorous string glissando, and ringing note. Even its obligatory climactic action cues are filled with masterfully subtle shifts of orchestral color and mood, especially gratifying in a musical genre characterized by the two dimensional. --Jerry McCulley