Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

Starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline; Directed by Robert Altman

A Prairie Home Companion is a very funny movie, and will be a special treat for all the fans of the public radio variety show on which it is based. A large ensemble cast joins host Garrison Keillor, including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, and Lily Tomlin.

The movie screenplay was written by Garrison Keillor, and begins with sad news: a beloved radio show (A Prairie Home Companion) is about to be shut down by a heartless corporation who bought out the original owners. The beautiful Fitzgerald Theater in which the show is performed (before a live audience) will be torn down, and a parking lot erected on the spot.

A word to those who haven’t heard the radio show: Garrison Keillor is a gifted monologist; during each show he spins another story of the fictional town of Lake Woebegon, Minnesota. He tells us about the various town residents and their life experiences. The show also features radio theatre; there are various comic episodes featuring characters like Guy Noir, Private Eye, and Dusty and Lefty (a couple of cowboys who wander hither and thither on the range and through civilization). Keillor also invites folk singers, gospel singers, and singers from all manner of different music genres to come on the show and perform along with his regular performers. Finally, he features numerous commercials for fictional products like Powdermilk Biscuits (“the biscuits that give quiet people the strength to get up and do what needs to be done.”)

The movie gives us an up-close and personal feeling for putting on a radio show. All the different people go about the jobs: makeup person, stage manager, stars, singers, sound effects guy, and so on. Director Altman is a master of ensemble work; he lets us feel the life that blossoms within his characters as they do the show.

In the movie, Guy Noir is a private detective (down on his luck) who’s hired as the security guard for the show. Kevin Kline is spot-on perfect in the role; his clumsiness and lack of smarts in every conceivable situation is a standing joke that just gets funnier as the movie progresses. This is one of his best performances in years.

Virginia Madsen has a mysterious role as “the dangerous woman.” She plays a character dressed in a white trench coat who wanders around the set as the show progresses, observing and occasionally talking with the various performers. Is she crazy? Is she the angel of death? Her inclusion in the movie adds a fascinating, deeper element to all the business happening on stage.

Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin play the last surviving sisters of a musical family. Streep’s character’s daughter (played by Lindsay Lohan) tags along, writing poems about death and suicide. In the movie, a romance apparently occurred in the past between Streep and Keillor. Streep hasn’t let go of it, and has some hilarious moments (live on the show) talking about it.

Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly play Dusty and Lefty as singing cowboys. They are hilarious when they sing a song about how they love bad jokes, punctuated by a string of very bad jokes that are also in very poor taste. The show censor is standing off stage meanwhile fuming all the while.

This is a very funny movie, and I recommend it for those who enjoy radio theatre and ensemble comedy, especially those who enjoy the actual NPR show. There are thoughtful appraisals of life and love and mortality, all lovingly fixed within the performance of a live radio show. This was also director Robert Altman’s last film.

No comments: