The Back-up Plan (Original Motion Picture Score)

Album Review

Director Alan Pool's chick flick The Back-up Plan tells the story of a single woman, who, heeding her biological clock, undergoes artificial insemination only to meet Mr. Right shortly afterward. Composer Stephen Trask (joined on eight tracks here by Matthew Mariano) turns in a score of short cues — 34 of them in under 41 minutes — that accompany the generally upbeat and gently comic situations. The Northwest Sinfonia does a lot of string plucking on the bright major-key motifs, with guitarist Justin Craig chiming in. There are occasional ponderous moments, and the plot's third-act complications are suggested in titles like "I Wanted a Baby," but there seems little doubt that love will out in a film designed to be playing in theaters between Easter and Mother's Day.