A Prairie Home Companion Review

As anyone knows who has regularly read my reviews knows I am a habitual NPR (National Public Radio) listener.  Those of us who listen and are members of our local Public Radio stations have our favorite shows, but A Prairie Home Companion which airs every Saturday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. after All Things Considered Weekend Edition, is not one of mine.  I find the program just a touch too cutesy and boring for my tastes. 

And so I was a bit surprised when it was announced the a movie would be made from the rather bland radio broadcast (staring) the real live host Garrison Keillor who has a face that was most certainly made for radio. 

Helmed by acclaimed director Robert Altman (Kansas City, Dr. T and the Women) and written by Garrison Keillor, A Prairie Home Companion takes place in a night as the last broadcast of the show takes place.  The cast above fills out the on-air performers: Woody Harrison (Dusty) forms a C&W duo with John C. Reilly (Lefty); Meryl Streep (Yolanda Johnson) is paired with Lily Tomlin (Rhonda Johnson) as singing sisters, and Lindsey Lohan (Lola Johnson) is the moody daughter of Rhonda. 

Meanwhile Kevin Kline portrays the now famed on-air private detective Guy Noir (performed by Garrison Keillor on the radio show); and Virginia Madsen portrays The Dangerous Woman (an angel). 

The story-line of the movie version of A Prairie Home Companion is somewhat challenged in that it isn't really there.  Most of the movie is consumed with useless chatter between the cast members about things we (the audience) know nothing about.  And quite frankly I cared next to nothing about.  It's like being dropped in the middle of a conversation in a foreign language. 

A Prairie Home Companion looks and feels much like a Robert Altman film, but to what end?  There is little here to entertain or inform.   If Garrison Keillor's bland, homogenized, bible-fed brand of comedy in all its countrified quaintness is your cup of soup, then by all means rent to flick.  But for the rest of us-even those of us who love NPR-for whom even five minutes of the radio broadcast goes a long way, Altman's backstage homage on Keillor's live radio series is an entertainment black hole.   In other words unless you are a diehard fan of the radio broadcast, skip A Prairie Home Companion.