Girl on a Bicycle (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

The breezy Parisian farce Girl on a Bicycle by writer/director/clinical psychologist Jeremy Leven finds an Italian tour bus driver caught up in a romantic triangle as unlikely as Leven’s professional pedigree. It’s also an accomplished showcase for the bright, playful charms of Juilliard-trained film composer Craig Richey, who’s quick to credit the director for giving him a challenge “before I had even written a single note—and that was that he wanted the music to be another character in the film. He did not want the music to go unnoticed as backdrop.” That sense of musical empowerment can be felt throughout, from the buoyant opening pop ballad “It Only Takes a Moment” (performed by Richey and vocalist Kari Kimmel, and the breezier “Play with Me”) through a tapestry of chamber orchestra set pieces that more than rise to Leven’s brief. While the score's sensibilities and colors (with Richey’s elegant piano lines, wordless harmonic vocal melodies, and melancholy solo whistling) occasionally echo the glories of LeGrand and Morricone past, it’s the composer shrewdly using them as familiar touchstones that helps spin his own delightful take on Continental romantic comedy.