Music (Score)
To be honest, the Rain Man score is kind of an odd fit with the film's setting and subject matter. First off, the film opens with the song "Iko Iko," whose lyrics no one really understands —but bottom line, it's basically a Mardis Gras party song. It's fun, but since the film's many settings don't include New Orleans (or Ghana, where it may have actually originated), we're not totally sure how it fits…
But hey, maybe it's just trying to set up a fun, decadent, and celebratory tone as Charlie gets his Lamborghinis cabled off a ship for him? Of course, he quickly finds out he can't sell those cars…
As far as the rest of the soundtrack goes, it's largely a mix of '80s-style music like Bananarama's "Nathan Jones" and Johnny Clegg/Savuka's "Scatterlings of Africa," more old fashioned hits like Etta James's "At Last," and some original compositions by Hans Zimmer.
And no, we're not talking the thundering, dirge-y Inception- or Interstellar-style Hans Zimmer (which pretty much sounds like an orchestra alternately attacking and falling asleep on their instruments). Zimmer's score here is super mellow, mixing panpipes (a lot of that—consider yourself warned), some 80's style-synth, and some very gentle drums (think: bongos). Like the opening song, the soundtrack does seem to have a bit of African influence.
Overall, though, the low-key soundtrack more or less fits with the film's less flashy, more understated drama. After all, it's a story of tension between two brothers, so the blaring arrangements Zimmer might use for something like Inception wouldn't exactly fit, right?