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| 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.
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: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Randy Newman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 20 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.1
(in 22,920 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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