Mark Isham's muted trumpet provides a first rate soundtrack for this compelling film. The music is atmospheric and truly haunting. It has a calming, nostalgic sound to it and brings a sense of longing for simple, yet emotionally fulfilling times. It reminds us that nothing worth having is gained without some kind of loss.
Another great score from Yann Tiersen, and, unlike Amelie, this is entirely new music composed just for the film. Tiersen sounds even more like Michael Nyman here, and, like Nyman, he shows the best that minimalism has to offer film scoring.
The music gently massages each scene, conveying the emotions at the core without bothering to hit every action onscreen like cartoon mickey-mousing. Instead, the music finds something deeper and mines it deftly and beautifully.
More sombre and subdued than his usual work, Yann Tiersen's score makes the perfect audio counterpart for the film's bittersweet but often funny story, which revolves around a family living in Communist Germany and is told from the viewpoint of the son, Alex. Most of the score is dominated by thoughtful, rippling piano that conjures up rainy days, as well as strings, woodwinds and brass that add to the airs of urgency and madcap humor that dominate the film and its music.
Tiersen's subtle but significantly shifting compositions are almost always quite moving, and Good Bye Lenin! is no exception. This is one of those rare scores that is just as affecting and cohesive outside of the movie theater as it is inside of it.
