Mrs. Doubtfire

by Jason Ankeny As Orson Welles reportedly once said, "You can handle sh*t with velvet gloves, but the gloves just get sh*ttier -- the sh*t doesn't get glovier." And so Howard Shore, arguably the most compelling and creative film composer of his generation, stoops to work with Hollywood hack Chris Columbus on the vomit-inducing Robin Williams family comedy Mrs. Doubtfire, and, well, let's just say his music doesn't get any glovier. Easily the most stilted and banal score of Shore's career, Mrs. Doubtfire relies on syrupy strings and saccharine piano melodies that offer few if any glimpses of the formal innovation and textural mastery of his finest work. It seems likely he's just giving a heartstring-yanker like Columbus exactly what the director asked for, but this is soulless music by any definition.