A Prairie Home Companion

I went and watched "A Prairie Home Companion" last night. It was a fun movie, and it brought to mind evenings sitting in the kitchen as a family listening to the show (at least until it got shut off by mom for a few too many bawdy jokes).

In some ways, I'm not quite sure what it was about. Ostensibly, it was about the show's fictional last broadcast, and we got a look into both the lives of the characters making the show and what goes on behind the stage at the real PHC. The show's host, a man named GK (and really Garrison Keillor playing a version of himself), and many in the rest of the cast refuse to even acknowledge this as the end. "They're midwesterners," observes Guy Noir (the backstage security man who is an incarnation of the fictional character on the radio show), "And midwesterners believe that if you don't talk about a problem, maybe it'll just go away." However, events both internal and external are conspiring to make these character's last broadcast memorable.

But to recount this plot isn't really to tell what the movie is about. It's more about everything-about life and death, memory and regret, the past and the future. In many ways, it is the story of a bucolic, bygone world which has been subsumed by the drive of modern culture. Everyone on the show is caught between a generation where you looked out for your neighbors and spent evenings and weekends socializing on front porches and at pot lucks, and one which wants to buldoze the theatre for parking space. However, "A Prairie Home Compainion" isn't preachy. It would shudder at the thought. It's not advocating a return to the simpler life that perhaps never was. Instead, it is simply a eulogy of sorts for a midwestern way of life which has been cast by the wayside without really considering what it was being exchanged for was really any better.

As cinema, the show was well done. The writing was brilliant, as one should expect with Keillor sharing screenwriting credit. The acting was also good. The high point here were a pair of sister singers named Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson, played by Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. Anyone who saw the Oscars can imagine how these two worked together. Kevin Kline also put in a good performance, and Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly are a hoot as a roguish cowboy duo. Surprisingly, I thought Lindsay Lohan put in a good performance as well, albiet as a girl who for at least part of the movie was getting laughs purely at her own expense. The movie also featured a host of people from the radio show, which will be exciting for anyone who has listened to the show.

The directing and cinematography are also effective. The camera work does a great job of moving between worlds, from backstage to the audience to the glass-enclosed box, in a way which is subtle bet effective. The setting itself is also great; the old theatre they're in is a self-contained world with a life of its own. And the music, for those who enjoy folk and old country, is great. The fun songs had my foot tapping with the guitar and banjo, and the mournful vocal harmonies moved me in just the ways they should.

All in all, "A Prairie Home Companion" was a great movie. I'd recommend watching it to anyone. If you used to listen to the radio show, however, it is a must see.