Altman's Eulogy to a Dying Art

A Prairie Home Companion (5/5 stars)

Like many Altman films, this is not an in-depth story about a select few characters but rather a slice of life of several different supporting characters. The backdrop for all of this is the fictional last show of the real-life variety radio show for which the movie is named after; the kind of show, as one character puts it, "died 50 years ago, but someone forgot to tell anybody."

Like a variety show, it has many different elements; lots of music, a little drama, comedy, musical comedy, satire, and sentimentality for the art form that is no longer around. However it is funny more than anything else, so going into it looking for a whole lot of laughter is probably the best approach. I think the easiest way to describe the movie is to imagine if you took one of Altman's previous movies, Nashville, and crossed it with a Christopher Guest mockumentary and a filmed tribute to any film, television show, or radio program which no longer exists.

This is not a plot driven film, but rather a character driven film, and Altman's deft splicing of the stories of the different characters and the superior acting all around make us really care for the people involved and even the show itself, even though this is a fictional story and most of the characters don't even actually exist in real life. It made me sad that it isn't possible for this kind of thing to be successful anymore, and I wish I would have been able to listen to it when it was. Death is a strong theme in the movie, not just of the show itself but even the mortality of some of the characters.

The cast of characters is quite large. There is an angel, played by Virginia Madsen (who seems eerily profound here in a very similar manner to her own previous performance in Sideways), who "takes people to see God." Another character is a hilarious private detective named Guy Noir (Kevin Kline), who narrates the film, and is a great caricature of someone from a bad detective story. There is also a pair of singing cowboys played by Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly, who perform perhaps one of the funniest musical numbers I've ever seen in a movie called "Bad Jokes." The best characters, however, are a pair of singing sisters played by Meryl Streep (who can sing very well, incidentally) and Lily Tomlin, who are not only very funny but provide some of the most touching moments in the film. Lindsay Lohan plays Meryl Streep's daughter, and she is actually surprisingly capable and even has a few really impressive scenes. There is also Garrison Keillor, who plays himself and anchors the film, and has great moments throughout the movie. He doesn't want to treat this as his last show, he wants it to be just like any other show because "every show is your last show". He is not sentimental when everyone else around him is, despite the fact that this is his ending more than anyone else's. He also plays in perhaps my favorite scene, when the stage manager (played by Maya Rudolph from SNL) is having trouble with the script and he and several other players on the show are forced to improvise a long bit about duct tape of all ridiculous things. It's something that is so absurd it is very hard to describe with any kind of justice.

If you're looking for a lot of laughs, some good musical numbers, and a little sentiment for great things that are no longer here, this is a good bet for you. I personally really enjoyed it, rare is it that something can make me sad, touched, and then be practically crying from hysterical laughter several times all within the short span of under a couple hours.