Phil Writes Them as He Sees Them: A Prairie Home Companion - By Robert Altman

A film by Robert Altman. There is something interesting about the kind of weight that carries. Immediately one comes to the conclusion that a film by Robert Altman means “important”. From the moment the film begins it is typical Altman. The layered multi-tracked audio, the constant movement of the camera, the improvisation from an ensemble cast. All is supposed to be well, this is as they say when any director becomes distinct (the name being followed by an “esque” or a “ian”), Altman-esque. I knew from the moment it began, and although maybe I should not admit this as it may seem unfair, that I was not going to like this picture. In retrospective I can understand why those first few moments were the beginning of the end for me.

As I said there is a certain weight that an Altman picture carries - this film not only carried all the nuances of a “typical” Altman film, it came off to me as Robert Altman doing his idea of an Altman film and not a particularly inspired one at that. I must admit some prejudices against this film before I get too deep though. Garrison Keilor and his radio shows have always been an anomaly to me. Neither funny nor keenly interesting there was always a sort of pull to it because it evokes some nostalgic quality of a by gone era of radio shows and simple entertainment. When I have attempted to listen to the show, or have been drawn into it, it always came from a place of wonder and not childhood wonder but the wonder of, who thinks this is funny? Who really loves this? People are laughing in the audience but I am not sure what is so funny about that biscuit recipe. Kellior’s script itself seems to draw attention to this many times, seemingly aware that his radio shows are not understood by people. That being said I had some high hopes for this film. I had a feeling that with Altman at the helm it would be an interesting look at the backstage workings of the end of a Ficitionalized version of Kellior’s own show.

The major problem with the film is that well over an hour of the films 105 minute length is taken up by musical performance. Not only is this demanding on the viewer but it doesn’t bring the person who isn’t a fan of Kellior’s show, or sub-par music, into a world that would be interesting tenough beyond the framework of the film. I think one important goal is to bring the viewer into the world especially if it’s not of their vested interest. I went into this film not being interested in Kellior and well let’s be honest Altman is extremely inconsistent, yet my hopes were still high. Altman seems to mistake time given to a subject (drawn out musical sequences), to actually making the experience just that, an experience. With a small amount of time allocated to actual character interaction you never have time to actually care for anything that is going on. What we do get is a dramatization of what it might be like to be at a concert your parents took you too. I say that knowing that there is a hell of a lot more “jokes” and talking in Kellior’s actual show than in this film and why so much of the running time is relegated to stale musical performances isn’t very clear to me.

For me the only real saving Grace of this film was John C. Reily and Woody Harrelson’s Lefty and Dusty. Their genuinely funny “Bad Jokes” song saves the film from being a total loss. Streep and Tomlin are stronger than the material given to them but their on screen chemistry adds some charm between songs. Hot off her undeserved Oscar nominated turn in the overrated and mildly enjoyable Sideways, Virginia Madsen gives a performance that extremely hard to watch. Her acting isn’t the only problem with the character. Altman has now set himself up to where weird things almost become clichés in his films, you expect things to not end up how you would think, yet in turn it ends up being just as predictable of a formula as a typical Hollywood blockbuster. Now you knew it was coming, I honestly wanted to see her do good in this film but the moment you see Lindsay Lohan on screen it is immediately apparent she is out of place. Now to her credit she is acting along side some of the most talented people working in film today but that being said, I was always aware of her being aware of herself. There wasn’t a moment in the film where I didn’t feel her acting. Even her just walking into frame I was taken out of the film.

With all this said though, this film is not awful by any means. The film had a lot of potential and that is obvious from the amount interest the film was garnering before it’s release. This film to me is most comparable to his supposed masterpiece, Nashville. I always thought Nashville was kind of a mess and thought it suffered from the same issue this film does of alienating an audience that may not enjoy the kind of music in the film and making the majority of the film the music itself. Yet once I fell in love with films like M*A*S*H*, Brewster McCloud, Secret Honor, and others I felt that I should revisit Nashville, as I did see it when I was 17, thinking I may have missed something in my intial viewing. Yet watching A Prairie Home Companion reminded me of that experience and although Nashville is obviously a better film, it helped reaffirm my feelings toward Nashville and made me remember what I disliked about it in the first place. Altman does not fail in showing us this world and there is some interesting subtext about corporate control and America's lack of respect for institutions and history, but he does fail to bring us in and make it interesting beyond the subject matter, which carries some weight as well.

2.7 out of 5