Soundtrack Review: Fool’s Gold by George Fenton (2008)

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

March 22, 2008

031808-0708-soundtrackr1 Soundtrack Review: Fools Gold by George Fenton (2008)

This is a review of the motion picture score for Fool’s Gold by George Fenton.

Anyone who has seen this movie will agree that it is not the best movie in the world. It is a light hearted action comedy and should be treated as such. George Fenton has made some strange choices in his career, but it’s certainly a wide variety of choices. From the animated comedy Valiant to the documentary Earth to drama Anna and the King he certainly isn’t afraid to try it all. Will it come good in Fool’s Gold or is it a fool’s endeavour? Here is the track list for Fool’s Gold:

Fools Gold Legend And Main Title
Wheres The Boat?
Debt Collector (Bigg Bunny)
Man Overboard
Late For The Hearing
Wheres The Plate?
The Nigel Factor
Saving Gemmas Hat
Aurelia And The Queen’s Dowry
The Stand Off (Fools Gold Theme)
Sabotaging The Grid
Tess Theme
The Day Dive
Discovering The Canon
The Aurelia Stone
Trouble In The Churchyard
A Deathtrap
Finn To The Rescue
The Treasure, The Kidnap And The Sea Plane
“a Nice… Soft… Landing” (Tess’s Theme)
Sharing The Spoils
Love And Affection (by Majek Fashek)
You Can Get It If You Really Want (by Desmond Dekker)
Call Me Thumper (by Classic)
Truly Madly Deeply (By The Dualers)

25 tracks and a total play time of 1:08:09. One has to wonder why much bigger movies than this one get so much less. You really get your money worth if you buy this one (and like it). 21 of those tracks are composed by George Fenton with a total play time of 56:44, that’s what I like to see! When you listen to the main theme (The main titles, not the Fool’s Gold Theme) you can easily get tricked into thinking this is another adventure action score like Sahara by Clint Mansell, but you would be sorely mistaken. There is very little evidence of the action at all in this score except for a couple of cues. Mostly it consists of all out comedy cues.

I’m not sure if it was the director Andy Tennant’s decision or George Fenton, but what were they thinking? They have worked together before on the movie Anna and the King where every cue was just perfect for the movie. They misfired on this one. If you didn’t see the movie and just listened to the score, then you would be mistaken for not thinking it was Valiant 2 or some other light hearted animated comedy. There are a few cues on here that is up to something good and that is “Fools Gold Legend And Main Title” and “The Stand Off (Fools Gold Theme)”. “Tess Theme” is nice as well. I would like George Fenton to reboot after this debacle and get back to his old self. It’s not quite Ennio Morricone “Mission to Mars” material, but its close at times. The 4 songs on this soundtrack are quite though, but they can’t save this. I was thinking about giving this score the rating of 2, but the 4 songs and the few nice cues by George Fenton gets it an extra half point. Listen to Fool’s Gold below: