Robert Altman brings Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion to the big screen.
Fans certainly know the voice of Garrison Keillor (if you don't, shame on you), but do you know his face? And do you know that he wears sneakers with his suit?
Written by Keillor and directed by Robert Altman, A Prairie Home Companion is a fictitious story based on Keillor's thirty-plus-year-running radio variety show. The cast is certainly all-star, with such powerhouses as: Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, and John C. Reilly; but there are also some really great moments from screen-rookies Garrison Keillor and, gulp, Lindsay Lohan (she's very, very good here.)
Mild Spoiler Warning
A Prairie Home Companion was filmed on location at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota, which is where Keillor's radio show originates. Altman must be applauded for making this decision, as the set feels comfortable and becomes another character for us to enjoy. The story is about a long running live radio variety show that is being cancelled after tonight's performance -- seems the new owners have other plans. Altman alternates between three storylines: the cast backstage as they reminisce and prepare for their spots, the live radio show, and a mysterious woman in a white raincoat as she's pursued by Fitzgerald Theater head of security, Guy Noir.
The magic here is how Keillor and Altman bring these plotlines together to not only tell a story, but to send a message - albeit a worn message: the old world is dying and the new one has no room for the likes of a live radio variety show. Or does it...
A Prairie Home Companion's old world is represented by the show's singers: the Johnson Sisters (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), cowboys, Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly), and Chuck Akers (L.Q. Jones). When Chuck is found dead, the cast must come to terms with the reality that it was simply his time. To help them (and us) along, some get a visit from the mysterious woman in the white raincoat (Virginia Madsen) - turns out she's an Angel and has come to take 'ol Chuck up to "God."
This is not a story that requires any specific religious beliefs, but one that uses death and the Angel as metaphor for the radio show verses the world. Tommy Lee Jones plays the role of the would-be villain - not so evil as stripped of any personality (he drinks water with no ice or lemon). But when Guy Noir asks the Angel to please take him away before he can close the show, it's Keillor who tells us that another will come in his place. The villain is not the man; the villain is the changing times.
Altman's use of mirrors throughout the film is magical and works on several levels: asking us to look at ourselves, our time, and they also capture the show's characters like windows into the past showing us bygone museum pieces. Production aficionados will respect this work and how difficult it must have been to shoot.
If anything is missing it's a monologue from Keillor - a rambling yarn giving us an update on Lake Wobegon.
A Prairie Home Companion is worth seeing and hearing, but you better hurry because as Keillor tells us: "Every show's your last show."
Highlights:
- Guy Noir's memorable dialogue
- Lindsay Lohan forgetting the lyrics to her song
- Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly singing the "Bad Joke Song"
