This guy seemingly couldn't have an off movie back then. I'm not sure he ever has had one.
Based on its soundtrack album, Josh And S.A.M. could qualify (if there's such a thing as "Thomas Newman by numbers," this is it). Still, everybody's entitled to a lesser moment now and then.
Thomas Newman looks back on his score for Little Women—along with director Gillian Armstrong and Newman's regular orchestrator Thomas Pasatieri—on the occasion of its 20th anniversary: