A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion ****

"A Prairie Home Companion" is ironic is one fantastic way-it's a film so revolved around death, and yet it is probably one of the most joyous and fun experiences I've had in a movie theatre in a long time. Not only death of people-as you'll see while watching it-but also the death of a lifestyle. A Prairie Home Companion is the name of a real-life live radio variety show, which airs every week on NPR, for the last thirty years or so. Author Garrison Keiller, the host of the show, has achieved a kind of cult following with his characters like Guy Noir, and the two singers Dusty and Lefty.

In real life, the show continues. In the film, the radio station has been bought by a big Texas corparation, and the Fitzgerald theatre, where the show has been broadcast live in front of a hundred people or so, is going to be knocked down, and turned into a parking lot. The cast and crew try to ignore the fact that the Axeman is going to come by and tell everyone that's that, and they just try and enjoy what they know is their final show, even though nobody talks about it. There's the ring leader, GK(Garrison Keiller). There's the Johnson sisters, Rhonda and Yolanda, and Yolanda's daughter Lola, who would rather write her poems about suicide than talk about how her mother and aunt became singers. There's the very pregnant Molly, who does the backstage work, and the head of security Guy Noir, former private eye, who doesn't even realize that Molly's pregnant until she's almost seven months in. Channeling Humprey Bogart, Kevin Kline's Guy Noir has his eyes on something else, a beautiful woman in a white trench coat, known as the Dangerous Woman. She glides throughout the set and the backstage. Some notice her, and many don't, but it's quite clear that she's looking for something, even though her motives aren't clear until the second act.

There's no real story here, just a colorful array of characters, directed masterfully by Robert Altman, who is the only one that could really pull it off. I read that Paul Thomas Anderson, of Magnolia and Boogie Nights fame, was slated to direct the film if the 80 year old Altman would die, or become incapable of directing the rest. This makes sense, as Anderson's films are often ensemble driven. But this needs no plot. A Prairie Home Companion works well without the typical film structure. It has long musical numbers, overlapping conversations, and such a fantastic group of characters that you fall in love with throughout. It leaves that warm, fuzzy feeling inside the pit of your stomach, and left me grinning and tapping my foot long after the credits rolled. Yes, it's about death. Not only with people, but the fact that this radio show is everyone's life. And now that it's closing, a part of them will die forever. But, you can't focus on that. There is only here and now, and that's the perspective to watch their final moments together. It's alot of fun. The preformances are terrific. The script is hilarious. It's proof that Altman still has it, even after eight decades of life, and I hope he doesn't stop now. It's one of the year's best, and at this point is the year's best movie.