The Mexican

Having pulled often-stellar duty in both genres for many a year, film-scoring vet Alan Silvestri should know if the show-biz adage that drama is easy, it's comedy that's hard is true. For the Brad Pitt/Julia Roberts comic-romantic adventure The Mexican (the title refers to an antique pistol that must be smuggled back across the border), Silvestri taps a little of his recent history--and some sage genre insight--to conjure up a breezy, playful score that evokes everything from Leone's Dollars trilogy and traditional Mexican folk music to pastoral jazz flourishes and club kitsch. But a decidedly Morricone-meets-Bacharach sensibility prevails throughout, with the composer often lovingly tweaking the familiar banjo, harmonica, and choral clichés of the spaghetti Western into music that is refreshing even as it is strangely familiar. A handful of pop songs adds another layer of loopiness to the proceedings--especially the remix of Men Without Hats' chestnut from the early 1980s, "The Safety Dance," and the sprightly "El Cable" by Mexican exotica master Esquivel.