My Review of the 2003 TV Movie

To say that this movie was a disappointment isn't really fair... I actually enjoyed quite a lot about it. This was, after all, "The Music Man", and it would be hard for me not to enjoy it simply for what it is... And there were some nice touches here and there, like in "76 Trombones" where the one little girl won't join in with everyone and Harold Hill sits with her and gets her to join in. Some things like that were very nice. And I liked that they included the "Pick-A-Little" reprise, which wasn't in the original film version.

However, this movie missed in some very big ways, starting with Matthew Broderick as Harold Hill. To me, this is not even a question of comparing him in any way to Robert Preston, or the idea that he had to fill Preston's shoes, or anything like that... He just doesn't fit at all in that part. Period. And worse yet, his performance was very weak and bland. No strength, no confidence, and not even any character, which I know he is so capable of creating in other roles. He really seemed like a fish out of water compared to some of the other strong performances, including Kristen Chenoweth as Marian (I loved her rendition version of "My White Knight"), David Aaron Baker as Marcellus, Debra Monk as Mrs. Paroo, Patrick McKenna as Charlie Cowell and Cameron Monaghan as Winthrop. A lot of Broderick's lines seemed merely delivered, and not really 'performed'. He just didn't seem natural at all. Very forced. So much for him trying to do something different than Preston and creating a different take on the character- he didn't really create any character! If this show had someone like Eric McCormack or Scott Bakula as HH, it probably would have elevated this to being a very good version. But with Broderick as HH... No way. Not that anyone's take on Harold Hill has to be like what I think it should be or how I would do it... I've seen a variety of different versions of HH, from Craig Bierko's near Preston-imitation on Broadway, to a recent production where the HH was sort of like a cheesy game show host... but they all had the basic element of character that makes the part work in the context of the show. Though he's 40, Broderick still looks like a 16 year-old, which immediately reduces the believability of his being a long-time legendary con-man right off the bat, and worse yet, he didn't deliver anything like a 'confidence man'. There was no rogue-ishness or danger to his role, and that's really an essential part of Harold Hill, no matter what the age is of the person portraying him is. I will say that now and then my wife and I would say something positive about Broderick- "Hey, that line was good..." or "He was okay on that song...", but when that is the exception rather than the rule you're in big trouble with a capital you know what...

Another big miscasting was Victor Garber's Mayor Shinn. Not that he isn't a great actor in his own right and in other roles, but his take on this part seemed way off-base. I tried to put my finger on it, and realized that he was too menacing... He was downright nasty all the time, and it just felt really wrong for Shinn, and also gave him little place to go with it. When he is genuinely angry at Tommy Djilas in the second act, there was no difference between when he was supposed to be merely suspicious of Hill in the first act. It was all just so menacing. The humor went right out of the character. He was also too well-spoken sounding, in terms of the tone of his voice, to be very believable as such a word-mangling bumpkin. Too proper and refined. Think of George W. Bush... His misstatements sound natural because he has that Texas bumpkin tone to his voice.

There were also a couple of unforgivable dialogue delivery mistakes where jokes were completely lost (which ultimately could be blamed on the director for allowing). One example I can readily think of is when "If You Don't Mind My Sayin' So" is over, Marian should sarcastically say to Mrs. Paroo, "well, if that isn't the best I ever heard", and then Amaryllis stops playing the piano and says, "Thank you". Well, in this version, Marian says that line right to Amaryllis. ???? Where's the joke??? There were a few other things like that, where jokes in the script were missed or passed over, and particularly in Broderick's performance where the delivery of the lines was just plain and monotone and without good timing, and lost some of the nice subtle humor that could have been there. I really expected Broderick to at least pull some more humor out of this role, but I've seen a high-school production's HH do much better with that (and look older, too!).

I particularly enjoyed the opening train scene, and thought that was well done, as well as some of the other ideas for filming they used, such as having HH going through town in various places during "Trouble". It gave the sense that he'd been working through the town for a while and spreading the 'germ' of his pitch. But of course, with a more galvanizing Harold Hill, you can believe that the pitch could be sold within just the few minutes of "Ya Got Trouble". Some of the choreography in "Marian the Librarian" was nice, as was the little dream sequence inserted, but by and large, I don't think the direction did all that much different stuff with the material than the other film version (or at least nothing of real significance), and didn't really focus more on the love story, which is what director Jeff Bleckner said he was doing in interviews. That may have been the intention, but I really didn't see it on screen.

So now we have a 'new' Music Man movie for a new generation. While it is entertaining and includes a few nice touches that the 1962 film version doesn't, the original film's memorable and vibrant performances, clever and more capable direction and ebullient spirit clearly make it the version more worth returning to for generations to come.

** out of four.

-Eric Endres-