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A Prairie Home Companion Though you won't hear mention of Lake Wobegon in the film, "A Prairie Home Companion" made the transition from radio to the big screen with its charm intact. The Robert Altman-directed movie is based on the long running public radio show of the same name, and stars many of the show regulars, including Tom Keith, Jearlyn Steele, Robin & Linda Williams, and of course Garrison Keillor, who wrote the screenplay. It is also one of the loveliest films about death I've ever seen. Joining the regulars as show performers on stage and backstage in the film are Hollywood stars Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin and yes, Lindsay Lohan in her first indie film. There's also Kevin Kline as detective Guy Noir and Tommy Lee Jones as a moneybags Texan who's planning to shut the show down. In this fictional version of "A Prairie Home Companion," the cast and crew are preparing for the final broadcast of the show, "the kind that died 50 years ago, but somebody forgot to tell them," as Guy Noir narrates. The show goes on, and meanwhile there's plenty of terrific Altman-esque backstage patter. Reilly and Harrelson steal most of the scenes they're in as Dusty and Lefty, two singing cowboys that have managed to hang on to the old schtick long after icons Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and their like have passed on. "Convenient for us," they deadpan. Streep and Tomlin play sisters whose stars have long since faded; Lohan is Streep's daughter, obsessed with her suicide poetry. Their scenes together are a joy to listen to. Fittingly, "A Prairie Home Companion" is a movie that you could watch with your eyes closed and still enjoy just as much. Throughout it all, Virgina Madsen glides through St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theater as an Angel of Death, calling upon one person and signaling the death of the program itself. Madsen is also there to offer serene words to cast and crew members who might notice her. The device mostly works. Streep is a highlight of the movie as Yolanda Johnson, who still pines for Keillor, her onetime love. She's funny in this role, and I was reminded of nutty role as Susan Orlean in "Adaptation." In that movie and in "A Prairie Home Companion," Streep reveals a sexiness that is sometimes hidden in her more dour or serious roles. And she can sing! In fact, most all the cast gets to show off their pipes at one point or another, and "A Prairie Home Companion" is chock full of the folksy music that you hear on the radio program every week, with a special emphasis on elegiac (yet not sentimental) tunes. The DVD of "A Prairie Home Companion" includes several bonus features that will delight fans of the show, including an extended feature on the making of the film that includes observations from the cast and crew and excerpts from Keillor's live performances. There are also extended versions of some of the musical selections and silly commercials that can be seen in brief form in the finished film. The audio commentary by director Robert Altman and actor Kevin Kline is a little dry, but enjoyable in small doses. Kline marvels at how the Prairie Home cast works like a well-oiled machine, and Altman talks about his method of just capturing "the moment" on screen without worrying too much about whether the script was followed closely, if at all! And so "A Prairie Home Companion" works as both a Robert Altman picture and as an extension of the spirit of the radio program it is based on. Keillor makes a great observation about radio in the film when he says radio people don't look back, and he's right. There's no TiVo for radio, and few listeners bother to tape programs for posterity anymore. Once you've heard it, it's gone. Like the real "A Prairie Home Companion" will be one day. And based on Keillor's observations in this film, I don't think the show will go into repeats when GK isn't around. Remember the good times, people, be thankful for them, but don't dwell on 'em. There are more on the other side of that hill. Watch two short clips from the Behind-the-Scenes documentary included on the DVD of A Prairie Home Companion.
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