A Prairie Home Companion

Posted by Matthew Alexander (matthew@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 14, 2006

A person going in to see A Prairie Home Companion and not knowing who had directed it would quickly suspect it was Robert Altman or a clever imitator. The overlapping, impromptu-feeling dialogue is all there, as is the realistic, almost documentary style of the scenes. It is a return to more familiar stuff after his venture into more standard territory with Gosford Park.

The plot, to the extent that there is one, revolves around the popular NPR radio program Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Garrison Keillor who plays himself in the movie. Several other actual crew members of the show are mixed in with more familiar actors to form a somewhat fictitious radio performance troupe which is giving its last performance. The real Prairie Home Companion is doing just fine, but the fictitious one in the Altman movie is being cancelled by a large evil corporation (are there any other kind in Hollywood?). The movie takes place almost entirely during the last performance as seen by the various contributors to the show.

It does have a plot which at times is evident, but at other times it is more of an intimate look into a last performance and how different members of the show react and interact without any real rise and fall in action. If the conceit sounds strange so far, that’s not the half of it. The somewhat real, somewhat fictitious troupe playing a pretend final show, though odd, cannot hold a candle to the element which actress Virginia Madsen brings. It would be too revealing to say exactly what she represents, so I’ll just limit myself to saying that her character represents an entirely different genre which, when mixed with the aforementioned elements, produces an unsettling, even jarring sensation that I could not immediately decide if I liked or not. In certain ways, it must be the strangest film I have ever seen.

The craftsmanship is quite good; nothing less than what you would expect from an Altman film. As usual, Altman probes with his camera while the actors explore the possibilities of a scene. When Altman feels he has enough, he wades through the miles of film and picks out the pieces he wants and, a bit of editing later, the scenes come together.

It is a style that has worked for him before and it generally works here. The show itself serves as the central pillar which holds the movie up and from which depend the various personal scenes, some mildly comical and amusing, others deeply personal and touching. It does, however, suffer from a few dead ends. Certain scenes suggest a topic or motif which goes unexplored. Certain events seem to be building towards something but ultimately mean nothing.

Perhaps that is the point, but if so it is a confounding one. For all his artistry and deftness of touch, Altman can’t seem to make a completely satisfying movie out of promising characters and elements. Though the last performance serves to hold the plot together, I left wondering what it all meant. Are we supposed to hate corporations for killing radio? Are we supposed to reflect on the transitory nature of all things? And what in the Sam Hill are we supposed to take away from Virginia Madsen’s presence? What was Altman saying?

Still, it would be unfair to call the movie a bad one. A C+ is a misleading grade, because there was nothing average about this movie. The characters and acting were very well done, and the feel of many of the scenes was nice. In particular, I liked how the movie opened and I liked Garrison Keillor’s take on what a last performance means to him. But weighing the movie down are the other elements, the lack of significance, the jarring union of diverse genres, the dead end streets… All in all, while I enjoyed many parts of it, I left feeling frustrated. I felt like there was a movie in all of that that just didn’t come out, like a sculpture left partly finished so that the intended form can be recognized but not thoroughly admired.

It’s worth seeing for Altman fans and any connoisseur of cinema looking for an odd though generally worthwhile experience. And there is that nagging voice in the back of my head that keeps telling me that a second viewing would be rewarding…

The Upside: Well crafted movie. Interesting characters with some fine acting. Ambitious mix of genres.

The Downside: Genres do not blend together nicely. Much suggestion of ideas which are not fully developed; odd, dead end scenes.

On the Side: Reportedly, Altman did not care for the character played by Virginia Madsen and initially reduced the role considerably. Madsen convinced him to make it a more central character again, for better or worse.

Final Grade: C+

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A Prairie Home Companion info page from IMDb.com

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