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June 09, 2006

A Prairie Home Companion

Old Time Radio for a New Generation?

By Greg

The coming together of radio legend Garrison Keillor and film icon Robert Altman is a nearly plotless, jumble of pure delight. It's a roving ensemble piece in the classic Altman style, held together with the subtle homor and folksy charm Keillor is known and loved for.

A Prairie Home Companion (directed by Altman, written by Keillor) is based on the popular National Public Radio (NPR) show of the same name which was created by Keilor in 1974, and which he has hosted and performed on ever since.

In the film version, however, the two hour variety show is not an internationally distributed emblem of radio, but rather a local Minnesota standard which is about to get the axe. Nor are Guy Noir: Private Eye or Dusty and Lefty: The Singing Cowboys sketches voiced by Keillor himself. Instead, Guy Noir (played humorously by Kevin Kline) is an out of work and out of place detective who gets by as a security guard at the Fitzgerald Theater where the show is broadcast live in front of an audience. Dusty and Lefty are an actual singing cowboy act played by Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly. Keillor, the even mannered, easy going host, singer, and master storyteller, plays himself.

It was shot almost entirely at the actual Fitzgerald Theater, where most episodes of the actual show are recorded. It takes place almost entirely during the fictional last broadcast of the show. This makes it an almost real-time affair. We wistfully wander form character to character, performer to stage hand, as each deals with the breakup of what has become like a family to all off them. For by the end of the night, the axe man (Tommy Lee Jones) for the conglomerate that bought out the station will be there to shut the show down.

As a long time fan of the radio program I went into the theater expectant, but prepared for a let down. Though I had great faith in the comedic ability of Mr. Keillor, as well as a healthy addiction to the work of Mr. Altman, I was worried that this single film would fail to capture the thirty years of magic that is A prairie Home Companion. Though many of the things I was looking forward to were not present in the film (such as Keillor's trademark monologue segment The News from Lake Wobegone) I found the back stage antics, and onstage improvisation of Keillor's motley crew to be more than satisfying.

Harrelson and Reilly are perfect as the crude humored cowboys, Kline is enjoyable as a somewhat Clueso-like Noir, Meryl Steep and Lily Tomlin steel much of the show with their singing-sisters act, Lindsay Lohan is (thankfully) a footnote, And Garrison Keilor's charm and satire translate admirably to the screen despite his "face for radio."

Altman's cinematic style is refreshingly simple in this little tale. Today, even your basic romantic comedies have gimmicky styles, artsy cinematography, and even computer animation to augment their often hollow stories. Since there's nothing lackluster about the characters or drama of A Prairie Home, Altman doesn't need to give it a high-gloss finish. The ‘70s-documentary style he employs here makes us mere voyeurs, rather than the gods we're accustomed to being; shaping and molding the drama as we see fit. Much like M*A*S*H or Nashville, we don't get in the way of the story. It just unravels organically before us.

Probably the strangest element of the film is the presence of a mysterious angel. Yes, an angel. Sent form on high, the enigmatic blonde reveals to some that her primary role is "taking people to meet God." It's handled uneasily at first, but pays off to great comedic effect several times when people look around and wonder who is next. Keillor need not say a word when he is made aware of this fact as he speaks alone with the angel. His face perfectly expresses his worry that his time has come.

The real question is whether the film will hold up against audiences who know nothing about A prairie Home. That's of course assuming that anyone from that majority actually sees it. Even if they don't appreciate it for its timeless, live folk and gospel performances, or its Midwestern dry humor, A Prairie Home Companion will at least be a big success as a love letter to fans like me.

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