A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

This big-screen adaptation of Garrison Keillor's long-running radio show A Prairie Home Companion, directed by an octogenarian Robert Altman, offers a beautiful synthesis of two unique artistic visions. Both an ode to old-time radio while a sly parody of it, Keillor's program has always attempted to achieve nostalgia through humor, music, and song. His pining for a lost time carries over to the fictional version of the show presented in the film, but Altman, just a few years removed from a heart transplant, obviously has mortality on his mind. He infuses this material with a sense of foreboding that dovetails nicely with Keillor's nostalgia to create a somber, downright sad film that still manages to produce smiles and laughs thanks to the actors and the performance material. Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep play a sister singing act, and their conversations in the film offer a clear example of everything that Altman does well with actors. To each other, and to Streep's daughter (a very game Lindsay Lohan), they spend much of the film telling long, rambling stories to each other about the history of their family during which they step on each others lines, digress to seemingly random topics, and offer unexpected but truthful emotional expressions of love and grief. Altman gives them plenty of room in the frame, so much so that after a while the audience may feel like they are eavesdropping on the conversations rather than watching written material being performed. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly perform a hilarious song about telling dirty jokes, and the scenes of Streep and Tomlin singing together on-stage are as subtly and fully engaging as their dialogue scenes. Although A Prairie Home Companion will probably never be considered among Altman's classic works, it does offer the opportunity to witness a great artist never questioning the purpose of creating art and entertainment even as death feels closer than ever before. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide