Review of A Prairie Home Companion (2006) by Jeff B — 16 Jul 2010

How strange it must seem to see our accelerated culture, moviegoers of the Information Age, gathered around a radio set simply to forget our workaday rigors for an evening. For those unfamiliar with public radio, however, there comes a startling revelation: This whimsical form of entertainment lives and thrives through the weekly broadcasts of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, a musical variety cum comedy show that seems, at first glance, an unlikely target for the tinhorn H'Wood machine. Like fine-tuned burlesque stars, Keillor and director Robert Altman know well the adage "it's all in the presentation." No, the movie does not present a spot-on dramatization of a regular evening of Prairie... programming. Rather, it presents a spot-on comedic dramatization of a regular evening of radio variety programming that just happens to be Prairie.

In this PG-13-rated comedy, a corporate axe-man (Jones) cues Prairie's curtain closing, which causes Keillor and company to pull out all of the stops and prepare for their last broadcast, with Private Detective Guy Noir (Kevin Kline) and an Angel of Death (Virginia Madsen) waiting in the wings.

Screenwriter/star Keillor plays with his own well-worn format, debunking - with the whimsical but cynical wit of a seasoned vaudevillian - the mythos behind a live medium that still seems magical, if only because it remains sight unseen. From Harrelson and John C. Reilly's Dusty and Lefty to Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin's Johnson Sisters, the ensemble shines, rounded out perfectly by Keillor's usual Sunday night musical lineup and framed perfectly by Altman's understated directing style.

Bottom Line: Believe the hype--Radio is the new cinema.