|
Movie Review - A Prairie Home Companion (2006)
|
|
|
|
|
(What this rating means)
|
|
| |
|
| Director: |
Robert Altman |
| Starring: |
John C. Reilly, Tommy Lee Jones, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Kline, Maya Rudolph,
Virginia Madsen, Lindsay Lohan, Meryl Streep, and Garrison Keillor (host of the NPR series by the same title) |
| Rated: |
PG-13 (for risque humor) |
| Length: |
105 minutes |
| Genre: |
Comedy/Music |
| Tagline: |
Radio like you've never seen it before. |
| Studio: |
Picturehouse |
| Website: |
A Prairie Home Companion |
| Release: |
June 9, 2006 (limited) |
|
PLOT
|
Director Robert Altman and writer Garrison Keillor join forces with an all-star cast to create a comic backstage
fable, A Prairie Home Companion, about a fictitious radio variety show that has managed to survive in the
age of television.
There's The Johnson Sisters, Yolanda and Rhonda, a country duet act that has survived the county-fair circuit,
and Yolanda's daughter, Lola, who gets her big chance to sing on the show and then forgets the words. Then there's
Guy Noir, a private eye down on his luck who works as a backstage doorkeeper, and Dusty and Lefty, the Old
Trailhands, a singing cowboy act. Add an angel and an Axeman, a pregnant stagehand and a hangdog emcee, and you
have a playful story set on a rainy Saturday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, where fans file into the Fitzgerald
Theater to see A Prairie Home Companion, a staple of radio station WLT, not knowing that WLT has been sold
to a Texas conglomerate and that tonight’s show will be the last.
|
|
MRS. MS. CALI'S TAKE
|
A Prairie Home Companion is the story of a radio program called, appropriately, A Prairie Home Companion.
Recorded before a live studio audience in Minnesota, the show has been on the air for 30 years. Now, the company
that owned the show/theater/station (I never was quite clear as to which it was) has sold it, and the new company
is sending the Axe Man (Tommy Lee Jones) to cancel the show and destroy the set. With the axe man due to arrive
any minute, tonight is the show's last airing.
As we watch the performance, we are also able to follow the happenings backstage. When a mysterious, beautiful
woman in a white trenchcoat shows up, the show's security guard, former private eye Guy Noir (Kline), must find out
who she is and why she's there.
A Prairie Home Companion the movie is the same type of variety show as A Prairie Home Companion the
radio show (that's being performed for the movie). It has elements of film noir, comedy, and drama. You'll laugh,
you'll cry, you'll laugh while you cry. I would describe it as Comedy Noir.
The storyline isn't the most intriguing. You figure out who Viriginia Madsen is rather quickly, and there's not
really any resolution to a lot of the questions raised. But the acting is so good, and the movie is so enjoyable
that the story becomes secondary anyway.
Two standouts are John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson as a cowboy musical duo. Their "Bad Jokes" song is one of the
highlights. Maya Rudolph is also great as Molly, the stage manager, in a very understated but hilarious role.
I give this movie 4.25 marks. I'll probably end up buying the DVD when it comes out.
|
|
ODDS & ENDS
|
- Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson will also be seen together in Josh Brolin's upcoming star vehicle
No Country for Old Men.
- Tom Waits and Lyle Lovett were originally slated to play singing cowboys Lefty and Dusty.
- Cast members did their own performing including singing and playing instruments. They performed live in the
theater rather than doing prerecorded studio sessions.
- Johnny Betts was unable to attend a press screening of this because it was at 10:00 AM on a weekday and he had
other work obligations. He now wishes he had tried harder to rearrange his schedule to attend it.
- FieryMaid (she of Movie Mark Message Board fame)
adds, "If anyone has listened to the radio show, they will find the movie is very true to it (I would hope so as
the creator of the radio show actually wrote the script for the movie)."
- John C. Reilly was in Nightwatch with Josh Brolin who was in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
|
|
MAMA'S APPROVAL
|
There were some young teens in the audience - I don't think there was anything there that would be inappropriate
for them. I don't notice bad language, so I can't tell you if there was any in this film, but I don't think so.
The "Bad Jokes" song may offend some who are easily offended, but for most it will just make you roll your eyes.
|
|
TRAILER COMPARISON
|
The trailer doesn't really convey the real "feel" of the movie. The most it does is let you know that Lily Tomlin,
Meryl Streep, and Lindsay Lohen are in it.
|
|
THE GIST
|
According to FieryMaid, "if you want some old-fashioned entertainment I would strongly recommend A Prairie Home
Companion."
|
|
