by Jason Ankeny Hans Zimmer's melancholy yet romantic The House of the Spirits captures the magic realism of Isabel Allende's source novel with a clarity absent from the accompanying film adaptation. Accenting his brooding synthesizers and ghostly strings with elements of South American music, the composer brings to life the tragic downfall of an aristocratic Chilean family with uncommonly poignant precision. Zimmer confronts head-on the human suffering at the heart of the film, and at times his richly textured themes seem to marinate in sadness. He never stoops to heart-tugging pathos or histrionics, however, instead instilling The House of the Spirits with a dignity perfectly matched to its characters.