An actor, scriptwriter and the director, Harold Ramis has gained good reviews under this last effort because of comedies as Groundhog Day, Multiplicity or Analize This. Between those mentioned movies there is a forgotten tragicomedy, led by Al Franken, an actor from the Saturday Night Live, and also scriptwriter of the movie. As it happens in other "made in Shaiman" comical scores, it gets sentimental touches, and some burlesque moments, even crazy, but also including several melodies. So we find tunes of blues from New Orleans, pure latin salsa music, incidental tracks in a known style from his composer and of course, touching piano notes. Shaiman is able to reach to a good work and for moments it turns out to be even brilliant.

But the great contribution of this score to Shaiman's whole work comes from its sentimental side. The family theme (a touching one) is simply delicious: a fascinating melody guided by a thin piano and that grows bolder, to the same melodic style of the wonderful themes for Patch Adams or Simon Birch. A theme that will be a certain inspiration of another one included in Bogus's score, and that contains a practically identical, take-off of three repeated notes, but then the development of this theme is different. Shaiman offers this great theme also as a great song called "What makes to Family", performed by Warren Wiebe and under Jeff Atmajian's arrangements, fitting perfectly with the movie (but unfortunately relegated to the final credits) and the store. Probably my favourite Marc Shaiman´s song.

The compact disc is completed by dialogs proceeding from "Saturday Night Live", and a classic tune "Everything's Coming Up Roses", by Stephen Sondheim (who also appears in In&Out), as well as arrangements by Shaiman of themes as "Silver Bells", by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans and "On The Sunny Side of the Street", by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. Definitively, much more than it would be necessary to wait from this score, and for a movie as this, and a soundtrack release that has turned to be one of my favorites from the composer.

8.5