Nominated in the Original Musical or Comedy Score category, Patch Adams music is a mix of source material, from such artists as Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton and The Rascals, and an original score by Shaiman. For this romantic comedy with Robin Williams clowning in a children's ward, Shaiman creates a surgingly romantic score with all guns blazing - the snag is that the main theme is not strong enough to linger in the memory. Nevertheless, listening to it, and imagining it in combination with the on-screen images, I doubt if there will be a dry eye in the house.

This score is very pleasant and heart-warming but it says little new, beyond offering one or two interesting harmonic twists - it treads a well worn path. Its the sort of music one associated with the 1940s women's tear-jerkers - in fact there are one or two tell-tale Max Steiner nuances. The music is often poignant and its child-like innocence clearly echoes the screenplay. I would mention just a few of the tracks: "Ranch Reveal" adds some country-style seasonings; "Hello" is a much more interesting, livelier cue - it begins rather like a syncopated minuet and it contains some arresting rhythmic patterns and quirks. "Speech" seems to be all about anticipation but here Shaiman treads perilously along a fine line and almost trips over into the cloying. "Front Porch" is quietly introspective and romantic. "Butterfly/Noodle Pool" offers nicely evocative impressionistic portraits of the emerging glory and beauty of the butterfly tinged with a little sadness for, one imagines, its short life; and childish high-spirited play is captured in the Noodle Pool segment. "The Ruling/Graduation" is a heroic triumphant statement of the main theme. Very pleasant and very safe - an ideal for the Academy judges.

Reviewer

Ian Lace

Reviewer

Ian Lace