After the fault of The Story of Us I was not thinking that Rob Reiner could fall down furthermore. I was wrong. Alex and Emma is a horrifying movie that fails in absolutely all its pretensions, for what its noisy commercial failure is understandable. Thankfully nobody remembered to call Eric Clapton in this occasion, though the main theme of the score is a song composed by Lee Alexander and Richard Julian titled "Those Secrets Words" and performed by the famous Norah Jones. The theme appears in occasions (as the typical moment as a video clip and the necessary happy ending) and Marc Shaiman receives the order of adapting it as a part of the score. So he is credited as composer and adapter. We must understand that the movie was a total failure, and its flooded with dialogues, that the music is scanty and that great part of it is adapted or limited to source music (charleston tunes), then there does not surprises that the score stills unreleased.

The music for Alex & Emma can be catalogued in several categories:

1. Comic tunes for Alex working at his apartment. Incidental sound and not much showy.
2. An urban theme for Emma, with a rhythmic modern base and notes of piano, very different from Shaiman's regular style.
3. A tense tune with latin influences for the cuban bullyboys who assault Alex in a couple of occasions.
4. The main theme for the score: non Shaiman music, that already mentioned “Those Sweet Words” sung by Norah Jones in a couple of occasions and which, in more than one dozen of times, appears as instrumental score in very distinguish variants. Stand out many of them, especially one that starts with Shaiman's own music, under a clarinet in a tune with a style close to Kenny G´s music.
5. "Paulina". The best tune in the soundtrack, composed by Shaiman and sadly too brief. It appears in two or three occasions and turns out to be unforgettable.
6. Flamenco (gipsy) music, based on guitar and trumpet, in a comical vein and, finally, more mariachi rather than flamenco. Besides there are other tunes in a latin sound, as one justified by the maid Eldora.
7. Dramatic final sequences, which before ending in the final number of Norah Jones, contains Shaiman's original, sad and interesting music.
8. Source music: Charleston's tunes abound, as others from Dvorak or Strauss.
9. Non-Shaiman tunes: The credits of the movie contains "It All Depends on You", composed by Les Brown, BG de Silva and Ray Henderson. Finally, the song "Those Sweet Words", composed by Lee Alexander and Richard Julian, performed by Norah Jones.

In conclusion, it is not a great score, its not among his best, but certainly, and being able to search carefully, contains a wonderful (though too brief) tune, that composed for Paulina, with a sound that is 100% Shaiman.

5.5