Movie Review: A Prairie Home Companion

Starring: Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Maya Rudolph, Meryll Streep, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson, Virginia Madsen, Tommy Lee Jones, the Guys All-Star Shoe Band
Directed By: Robert Altman

This is a film that will be on the must-see list for any fan(s) of:

Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor, Meryll Streep, Kevin Kline, St. Paul, MN, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tommy Lee Jones, Virginia Madsen, Cowboys, Film Noir, Lindsay Lohan, Bluegrass Music, NPR, Robert Altman,The Guys All-Star Shoe Band, Tim Russel, Radio, Dirty Jokes, Old Theater Buildings, Lily Tomlin, Maya Rudolph, Spaguetti Sauce, Minnesota, the Midwest, or Gym Socks.

I don’t know how big of a fan of NPR’s Prairie Home Companion Robert Altman is, but judging by the way he crafted this film, you would think it was a labor of love for the veteran director.
Altman, having achieved legendary status as a director with such classic films as M*A*S*H* and Gosford Park turns his eye to the world of public radio, and a beloved radio program which still broadcasts most Saturday evenings from the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota.
Featuring a A-list roster of actors, many of whom play characters which regularly appear on PHC, the show is stuff to the rim with an endless variety of things for the eye and ear to take in.

The Premise: We follow the events at what proves to be the very last broadcast of a Prairie Home Companion on WLT because of a recent corporate buy-out, and the current owners feel the show has outlived its time. Various characters react in different ways, but it is, despite their resistance and struggle, the last time a broadcast airs from the Fitzgerald stage.

From the first few moments this film was such a joy for me to watch. Often times studios will find it much easier to recreate a location inside a massive sound stage in Hollywood, which allows their camera and lighting crew a much easier task, not to mention not having an entire cast and crew displaced to a new city for the duration of shooting.
But it becomes very clear quickly that the F. Scott Fitzgerald theatre itself is going to be a main character in this film, which ends up being of the great delights of the picture.

The theatre, (particularly the backstage area) is not large, so the camera is never far away from its subjects, often pressing you into the midst of their conversation, almost by accident. The surroundings become part of the story, not only because of their uniquely individual architecture and decorations, but because it forces you to stay close to the character, to the story by not letting the camera ever take a wide-angle shot.
Even in the main theatre, (which is not a very large auditorium) you never swing away to a dizzying height on a crane shot, showing you the grandeur of the hall. We are meant to feel close to the cast, as though they were old friends who have come for dinner, and they all brought banjos.

Most dialogue scenes are filled with Altman’s signature overlapping dialogue, which some would argue is an attempt to have more seemingly organic conversation, but in the case of the mayhem of a concert backstage, it helps to heighten the chaos and confusion, allowing the individual’s ears to choose what it wants to listen to.

As I mentioned before, many of the characters that have been created during PHC’s tenure on the radio are characters in the film. The casting for this film was really excellent. Chosen are a roster of actors whom share many Oscars between them. Whether it be an honor to work with Altman, or belief in the story they’re telling, or perhaps its just love of the game, but the actors all seemed to be having a great time working their craft.

Guy Noir, the radio detective in the vein of the Shadow, is played by Kevin Kline, who heads up security for the Fitzgerald, and spends his time in the movie searching for the elusive Virginia Madsen, who turns out to be the death angel. Kline definitely got to play the most comically with his character. It was fun to see his impressions of Guy Noir, probably having listened to the entire recorded history at least once to get an idea of how Garrison Keillor made him talk, which in turn gave him an idea of mannerisms and level of basic intelligence. (Which as it turns out, is rather low.)

Dusty and Lefty, the trail hand cowboys are played by John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson. The radio PHC usually depicts them on the lonely dusty trail somewhere herding cattle somewhere in Minnesota or Iowa, but for the purposes of the movie, Dusty and Lefty wander around backstage in full regalia, looking reminiscent of the Marlboro man, complete with faces that looked like they haven’t seem soap in weeks.

Meryll Streep and Lily Tomlin play fictional characters created for the film. The Johnson Sisters are gospel-singing sisters from Wisconsin one of whom has a history with Mr. Keillor (or as the film refers to him, GK.) They perform on the show (using their real voices) and try to crash-land one of the faux-commercials involving duct tape. All in all their presence is a lot of fun, and Streep again accomplishes the task of creating such an organic character, that you feel as though you have known her your whole life.

Garrison Keillor really does steal the show, however. It is his ship, after all.
I wondered how they were going to handle his role in the movie. PHC is a one-man show in many respects, and it was comforting to see that they did very much keep him in the center of attention.
He took on all the responsibilities we’re used to hearing him do on the radio, singing, hosting, monologuing, and quite surprisingly, being exactly the same person on screen that we hear on the radio.

This begs the question: is Garrison Keillor ever not Garrison Keillor?

In the film, GK is constantly being distracted by one conversation or another, a seemingly bottomless well of subtly humorous stories, usually involving “pants around his ankles” as a punch line.

It is true: Garrison Keillor is an ugly man. He looks sort of like a carp. An old carp.

(Side Note: Saturday Night Live’s Maya Rudolph makes her most impressive and human performance with this film – too bad she doesn’t get to do this on SNL.)

This film is worthy of remembering come Awards Season again. Altman should get a nod, as well as art production, set design and a slew of other technical awards for the work accomplished filming inside the F. Scott Fitzgerald.
As far as acting goes, we have a long year ahead of us, so it’s too early to tell.

The Grade: A+