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A Prairie Home Companion

2006, Movie, PG-13, 105 mins

A Prairie Home Companion: Review

PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, A
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The shadow of Altman's masterful NASHVILLE (1975) hangs heavily over his last film, a slight, uneven love letter to old-fashioned radio shows, sweet-and-sour country-western ditties and amiably self-conscious cornpone humor, based on Garrison Keillor's long-running program. It's Saturday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Fitzgerald Theater is about to host local station WLT's regular broadcast of the venerable variety hour "A Prairie Home Companion," a retro mix of music, tall tales and gentle philosophizing. It's all hosted by tall, gravely whimsical G.K. (Keillor, as a down-at-the-heels version of his very successful self), who also shills gamely on behalf of Bebop-a-rebop rhubarb pie, the Prince of Pizza Pizzeria, the American Duct Tape Council, Guy's Shoes and Powdermilk biscuits. But WLT has been sold to a Texas-based media conglomerate that's cancelling Companion and plans to tear down the Fitzgerald to build a parking lot. The show's regulars intend to make their last broadcast a humdinger, despite G.K.'s stubborn refusal to say a few farewell words to their faithful listeners. Aging sisters Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson (Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin), sing about memories of home, their late mama and lost love while Yolanda's daughter, Lola (Lindsey Lohan), lurks in the wings penning juvenile poems about suicide. Also, bumptious singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly) intersperse their lewd, rude numbers about lowlife on the range with hokey patter, and aging balladeer Chuck Akers (L.Q. Jones) alternately croons and croaks a sentimental Carter Family number about friendship. Goofy gumshoe Guy Noir (Kevin Kline), the theater's nominal security force, stumbles around in pursuit of a sinfully lovely lady (Virginia Madsen) on a mission from God. And the show goes on, thanks in large part to the strenuous efforts of stage managers Tim Russell (as himself) and Molly (SNL's Maya Rudolph), sound-effects artist Tom Keith (as himself), and real-life Companion musicians Robin and Linda Williams, Jearlyn Steele and Guy's All-Star Show Band. The slim shreds of plot involving a sudden death, the repercussions of Yolanda's unhappy affair with G.K. and the arrival of a corporate hatchet man (Tommy Lee Jones) are at best inconsequential and at worst intrusive; their charms lie in Keillor's witty pastiches of country songs and commercial jingles, and in the interplay between his gently comic characters. With the exception of Kline's strenuously unfunny slapstick bumbling, the performances are uniformly excellent (Streep so uncannily echoes Ronee Blakley's turn as NASHVILLE's fragile Barbara Jean that it's hard to imagine she's not doing it deliberately). Overall, the film falls into some comforting cocoon midway between affectionate spoof and adoring homage, much like Keillor's warmly nostalgic show. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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