Soundtrack Review: Safe House (2012)

Safe House Soundtrack Review: This is a review of the film score Safe House by Ramin Djawadi.

"Djawadi is not at fault here, he does well with the material provided"

Safe House, as the title implies, is about a safe house used by FBI to look after a fugitive who is no doubt in danger of being hunted down and killed. The safe house is somehow compromised and they are under attack so they have to run to escape. Directed by Daniel Espinosa and starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. For his first big Hollywood production Espinosa has chosen Ramin Djawadi to compose the music.

Track List

Safe House is Ramin Djawadi's first score of 2012 and this thriller score does not give Djawadi the creative outlet he no doubt would have wanted. It's hard to get over the fact that this score sounds so mundane and standard. You have the regular thriller cues, the occasional action cues, but it just doesn't go anywhere, at least not where I would like to have it go. Scores like this is Djawadi's biggest enemy and to create a superb thriller score based on the material he has been given would take extraordinary measures.

I don't blame Djawadi for not creating a masterpiece, but to be fair it does have some redeeming factors like an exciting action cue in 'Get In The Trunk'. 'Off The Grid' and the title cue 'Safe House' offers almost similar quality. What drags this score down is awfully boring cues like 'Tobin Frost' and 'Don't Kill Innocent People'. They bring nothing to the album presentation of the score, but works well as background music for the film.

Conclusion

Let's be reasonable here, the film has no reason to have a mesmerizing orchestral score (or electronic one for that matter), but deep down as a soundtrack fan, I want it to sound a lot better than it did. Djawadi is not at fault here, he does well with the material provided. One can wonder about what would it have sounded like with other composers, but I just can't imagine it much different and if it would have been, then perhaps it would sound worse in film.

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Listen to the Safe House soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi below: