The instrumental palette for The Next Three Days is kept to a minimum, forcing Elfman to derive tension from an orchestral string section and a variety of soloists on piano, electric and acoustic guitars, synthesizers, and slight percussion joined by, oddly in a couple of circumstances, ethnic female voice. Why Elfman sought Balkan-styled wordless singing from Ayana Haviv (a veteran of several scores) for this assignment is something of a mystery (likely pointing to Haggis), but despite some misgivings some listeners may have for such techniques of lament in film music these days, her performances are striking highlights along the same general lines, coincidentally, as those in James Newton Howard's The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep. The strings are often split into several lines of soft rhythmic action, with sometimes three different harmonic avenues explored at once. Their numbers aren't great, but never do they suffer from the lack of depth associated with chamber-sized ensembles. The piano is clearly the heart of the score, a deeply rooted organic representation of the family reinforced in the story. Like the loose ends of the narrative, most of these elements converge in the five-minute highlight of The Next Three Days, "The Truth," a lovely and redemptive expression of the harmonic lines developed in tepid variations throughout the previous hour of music. Thematically, Elfman doesn't really establish his identities with much forcefulness in the work, though he faithfully follows the primary character's stubborn persistence with a piano theme beginning in "A Way In." In the scenes involving the family together, this material is given a more saccharine personality; otherwise, it contains an abundance of repetition of notes and fluttering auxiliary lines that make it sound like a sour interpretation of a fluttering Alexandre Desplat dramatic theme. There are only a few cues in which Elfman's distinctive style of previous years shines through, usually in the form of electronic bass activity. Unfortunately, the score as presented on the identical Lionsgate and Silva Screen albums is far too redundant and slowly developed to serve as much more than an ambient background experience. The 64+ minutes of score could be whittled down to half that length and be far more engrossing. Even at its length, however, it's a pleasant enough diversion to recommend to those who prefer lightly rhythmic, non-offensive suspense music with a tender temperament. The two Moby songs at the end are equally somber but quite tolerable, a good match for the tone of Elfman's score. Seek "The Truth" for a compilation, however, because it's not only the highlight of this score, but a noteworthy cue in general from any score during the entire year. Scientologists are free to disagree and whack copies of the CD with L. Ron Hubbard books at will.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download