Amazon.comWith a few notable exceptions, writer Stephen King's horror works have more often than not been mangled by Hollywood. Oddly, it's his gentler, more human side that's prospered in films like Stand by Me, The Green Mile, and, more recently, Hearts in Atlantis. Underscoring director Scott Hicks's subtly deft touch with Atlantis's coming-of-age tale, composer Mychael Danna has written music that seems to forge the best of Thomas Newman and Rachel Portman, fusing the former's spare, dramatic use of space and musical longing with the latter's delicate, pastoral sense of melody and color. Unfortunately, as lovely as it is, Danna's music is represented by just four tracks here, in essence becoming little more than sonic seasoning for the collection of oldies that set the film's time frame. And while those tracks by the Platters, Chubby Checker, Chuck Berry, Santo and Johnny, and Percy Faith add a certain sense of mood, they do so at the expense of Danna's own compelling work, and that's too bad. --Jerry McCulley