George S. Clinton

George S. Clinton is easily one of the most inventive composers of the late '90s -- witness his work on Wild Things, if you need proof -- but even he couldn't save the debacle that was The Astronaut's Wife. The sluggishly paced Rosemary's Baby rewrite was ill-conceived, and no matter how hard Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron worked, they couldn't make the film interesting. Similarly, Clinton pushes hard in his score, giving the film more than it deserves, by mixing and matching styles and developing some truly eerie juxtapositions of convention and avant-garde. Since the movie was so dull, it was hard to notice that in the theater; but isolated on a soundtrack album, Clinton's work truly blossoms and sounds so compelling that you wonder why it didn't sound this good in the movie. Maybe the blame should be placed on writer/director Rand Ravich, but, ultimately, that's something for film critics to sort out. At least The Astronaut's Wife works as a soundtrack album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi