Soundtrack Review: Man On A Ledge (2012)

Man On A Ledge Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score Man On A Ledge by Henry Jackman.

"As a tension-based score, it succeeds in almost every way."

Man On A Ledge is a thriller about a police psychologist who tries to talk down an ex-con who is threatening to jump from a Manhattan hotel rooftop. Of course things aren't as apparent as they seem. Directed by Asger Leth and starring Sam Worthington, this seems to be an interesting affair. The composer is Henry Jackman.

Track List

Henry Jackman had a fantastic year last year with Puss In Boots and X-Men: First Class and many say that he is the best composer to come out of RCP for ages and I agree. That is why I look forward to every score he makes and Man On A Ledge is no exception. The only thing that worries me is the subject at hand. It seems like an ordinary thriller and it's very hard to make something that stands out. Unfortunately that is the case yet again with Man On A Ledge. I would say it's a score built to feed the tension and I'm pretty sure it succeeds. The cost of that is an album representation that is hard to listen to.

Every cue here is very consistent in a way that's normally very good, but in this case I would prefer more variation. It seems like every cue is almost the same. 'The Roosevelt Hotel' and 'The Getaway' are good examples of what you would expect from this score. It's very dark, gritty and electronic cues built on a bass sequence with simple percussion beats. In some scores, the composer manages to add at least one or two cues that's different from the tension cues, but unfortunately I can only find a couple of examples. Jackman does find time for a Brian Tyler-like action cue at the end with 'Good Cop Bad Cop' but it's just not enough.

Conclusion

As a tension-based score, it succeeds in almost every way. As a complete listening experience, you get bored with it, at least I did. I think this score would do well if you just want to work with some tense background music on. A bit disappointing from Jackman, but I'm pretty sure it's the subject at hand that forced such a mediocre score.

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