Buy it... only if you have already established a liking for John Williams' highly repetitive, subdued character scores with simplistic development.

Avoid it... if you have become accustomed to the inherent magic involved with the complexities of Williams' more superior character scores.

Williams

The Accidental Tourist: (John Williams) A film about both depression and laughter, The Accidental Tourist reunited director Lawrence Kasdan with actors William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. Having established themselves in Body Heat several years earlier, they turned their attention to this adaptation of Anne Tyler's novel. Hurt's character writes travel books for people afraid of traveling, and upon his son's death, he falls into a hopeless depression that causes his wife, Turner, to leave him. Through his dog, the only connection he has to the outside world is the quirky Geena Davis, who he meets at a kennel. Davis begins the task of bringing the author back to life, and she manages to slowly accomplish this through humor and determination. The Accidental Tourist certainly dwells in the lengthy scenes of Hurt's character's loneliness, and much of John Williams' score for the film mirrors that introverted reflection. But the integration of the humor into the story, as well as Kasdan's ability to make the characters likeable even through their troubles, launched The Accidental Tourist to critical success. Coming at the end of a slow period in Williams' career in the mid-1980's (he had become heavily involved with the Boston Pops at the beginning of the decade and that took time away from his composing duties), The Accidental Tourist would achieve yet another Academy Award nomination for Williams. His character scores, while obviously not the most memorable in his career, were still considered top products at the time. Debate between Williams collectors continues, however, about the merits of these character scores. The Accidental Tourist shares many traits with Stanley & Iris, Stepmom, and Williams' half a dozen other subdued efforts, and to adequately rate them against each other, there's an intangible factor of magic that comes into play. Somewhere in the middle of that list, The Accidental Tourist resides.

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The structure of this score follows very similar lines as Stanley & Iris, although The Accidental Tourist as a film differs from Stanley & Iris in one important way: whereas Stanley & Iris never seems to mature from beginning to end, The Accidental Tourist builds up to a revelation in both the film and score. The masses of the underscores both suffer from a considerable amount of repetition, though. Williams' theme for The Accidental Tourist is an exact, note-for-note prediction of the title theme for Stanley & Iris and a subtheme for Home Alone, making it instantly recognizable for a Williams collector, but disappointing at the same time. From start to finish, Williams regurgitates this theme endlessly, from the overdrawn sequences of loneliness during the first half to the one strong ensemble performance in "A New Beginning." Unlike Stanley & Iris, the performances of The Accidental Tourist have a fuller orchestral sound, even in the moments of contemplation. Still, in cues such as "Macon Alone" and "The Healing Process," Williams fails to assert his themes with a rhythm or other twist of memorability beyond the very simple elegance of the piano solos. In a handful of cues, the flat nature of the music --much like Hurt's character-- peeks out of its shell. First, in "Trip to London" and then in the concert piece from the score, "A Second Chance," Williams finally bows to some of the playful humor that Davis' character brings into the equation. As mentioned before, "A New Beginning" offers the overplayed theme in the appropriate, but long awaited orchestral crescendo, quickly identifying itself as the highlight of the score. A longer album than Stanley & Iris compounds the problem of listenability, for a person could lose patience for the score long before that finale. The printing run of The Accidental Tourist by Warner was not very long, and the album has fallen badly out of print and become a high collectible for Williams fans. As with his other character scores that are now out of print, be absolutely sure that you will find relaxation or other satisfaction in The Accidental Tourist, for it won't seem worth the extra cash for many of you. **

Bias Check:

For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.72 (in 63 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.67 (in 299,177 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.