Review of Alex Wurman’s Score for What Doesn’t Kill You

By E. Corrado

Alex Wurman, who scored the award winning documentary March of the Penguins back in 2006, and more recently Four Christmases, paints a quiet minamlistic score here. Composed mainly of a single theme, with which the music rides on, it is often heard on the piano through different variations with strings taking it up. The piano and strings switch back and forth between which will be carrying the theme and which will be providing the accompanient.

In one of the tracks the theme plays under slightly more electronic sounds and distorted. No matter what way it is being played, this is a beautiful theme that seems to accurately interpret the theme of the film and the lives it is based on. The reprise of the theme - the closing track - is fuller and more sure of itself. Here you can hear the version with a prominence on the piano and guitar. A fitting end to the movie it was written for, as the score winds down, so does the theme kind of stopping and fading out with a few final notes.

(In some ways this score reminds me of Aaron Zigman’s score for Flash of Genius. I think it is the simplistic undertones which accurately show the - albiet different - emotional struggles of each of those respective film’s main, [based on real life], characters.)

The official soundtrack which is available off of iTunes includes six songs by various artists, and the six score pieces by Alex Wurman. It was originally released on December 12th, 2008.