☆ ☆ ☆
A
Prairie Home Companion (2006) – R. Altman
When I lived in Minnesota, I never paid
too much attention to Garrison Keillor out at Lake Wobegon and his Prairie Home
Companion radio show. I watched this
film primarily because it was directed by Robert Altman, his last film, and it
certainly bears his stamp (overlapping dialogue, large cast, indirect focus,
camera zoom, meandering non-plot). The
material is genial enough (written by Keillor) and well-suited to Altman’s
style. The age-old radio show is going
to be shut down and the Fitzgerald Theatre demolished – we watch the last
performance front-stage and back-stage. There’s
some folksy country music (sung by the likes of Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin,
Woody Harrelson, and John C. O’Reilly), some folksy stories and witticisms by
Keillor, some informal friendly banter among old friends, and then some bits of
plot thrown in to move the film along.
Lindsay Lohan is here doing not much.
Don’t start here with Altman but he does elevate the totally
non-offensive material here. There’s a
place for this way back yonder in your parents’ day, I think.
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