Buy it... if you fondly recall the pleasantly optimistic demeanor of the music in the highly respected film, including Randy Newman's likeable song and parody highlights in his typically pretty score.

Avoid it... if only 22 minutes of largely mundane score material and two performances of the Oscar-nominated Newman song can't justify the product for you.

Newman

Parenthood: (Randy Newman) You don't even have to be a parent to wince at the reality of life on display in the 1989 Ron Howard movie, Parenthood. The comedic drama used its extremely smart script and tremendous ensemble cast to earn well at the box office and enthuse critics, inspiring two spin-off attempts of the concept on television over the course of twenty years. The story is a wildly broad examination of the Buckman family and all of its various offshoots, the dysfunction wide-ranging and symbolic of all the types of different family dynamics you encounter in real life. Howard rotates between the subplots for each family member with skill, occasionally bringing all of the characters together for highly entertaining events that are themselves not without a fair amount of funny dysfunction. Steve Martin anchors the cast, though supporting contributions from Dianne Wiest, Mary Steenburgen, Jason Robards, Rick Moranis, Tom Hulce, Martha Plimpton, and Keanu Reeves are all noteworthy, especially in the cases of Robards and Wiest, the latter nominated for an Academy Award for her part. In many ways, Parenthood is an emotionally exhausting movie, its serious passages genuinely touching and, in some cases, suspenseful. But Howard's ability to sprinkle hilarious one-liners throughout the picture keeps it light enough to entertain and remain an affable entry in your memory. The personality of the picture is perhaps summarized best by Randy Newman's original song for the opening and closing credits, "I Love to See You Smile." The composer and performer had not yet become a staple of the animated movie genre, his film credits still rather sparse as of the late 1980's. His previous full film score had been for The Natural in 1984, a resounding success, and although he had contributed songs to other features during the decade, Newman's return for Parenthood represented the first entry in a new, concerted effort by the composer to write wholesome dramatic music for movies, whether with his songs or without. His saccharine writing style for softly sentimental and nostalgic situations was solidified during this time, his likeable orchestral style really beginning to flourish in Parenthood and Awakenings shortly thereafter. The disparate emotional pulls in Parenthood required Newman to write a score that covers a significant amount of territory, some of which in the parody realm, but his tender, melodic writing ultimately defines the score.

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The role of music in Parenthood is not extensive, with few outright source placements and the most notorious passage from the soundtrack being the infamous "Diarrhea Song" (a traditional camp favorite) performed by Martin's children in an early scene. Beyond that, "I Love to See You Smile" (earning the film's other Oscar nomination ) truly sets the mood of the film, its progressions, instrumentation, and performance heavily foreshadowing "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. The melody from the song unfortunately does not carry over into Newman's largely fluffy score, but the composer does utilize a series of equally friendly motifs that hold the work together. A whimsical idea for piano in "Introduction" and "Helen and Julie" (and translated into darker ensemble shades in "Gary's in Trouble") is vaguely reminiscent of an equivalent James Horner theme for feather-light situation at the time. The idea informs the stern atmosphere of "Father and Son" but is eventually challenged in "Karen and Gil/Montage" by another melody that had been previously stated in "Todd and Julie." These themes are really quite interchangeable, most often expressed by the same set of friendly woodwinds, strings, and piano. Setting Parenthood apart from Newman's other scores of the era (Awakenings and Avalon could be considered the closest siblings) are several uniquely spirited cues for specific situations in the story that call for Newman to range out of the comfort zone of the drama genre. Most memorable of these deviations is Newman's music for "Cowboy Gil," ranging from the faux-Mexican tones early in that party sequence to the all-out Western parody at the end (the sudden pause in the cue within the film is translated to album, too), a sound reprised importantly late in "Kevin Comes Through" and foreshadowing the sillier parts of Maverick. And then there's the score's suspense motif, a rambling keyboarded idea heard in "Gary's in Trouble" but really developing into a force in "Drag Race," complete with striking electric guitar contributions. This suspense motif turns brighter at the outset of "Kevin Comes Through." The score's occasional waltz rhythms of pomp are best summarized in "Kevin's Graduation," which announces its victory with overblown pride. Overall, Parenthood's soundtrack is cute and effective, but it's also surprisingly short. Aside from the two performances of the song, the score in between only amounts to about 22 minutes, and perhaps it would have been fitting to the concept for the product to include that good old "Diarrhea Song" as a bonus track for good measure. Oh, the pleasures of children in cars. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Randy Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.06 (in 17 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.11 (in 20,737 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.