A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

Physically I'm back, but mentally I am still on some distant plateau, especially since I have popped over to Belgium before dealing with my transatlantic jetlag.  So I'm way behind in keeping things up to date.  I will probably write about the dubious pleasures of in-flight movies on the next entry or two, but first wanted to get down a few reactions to Robert Altman's last movie.

Those of you who have been paying close attention -- which of course means all of you -- will recall that Altman was one of my movie gods and that I mourned his passing a few months back.  His last film seems to me an appropriate swansong and in fact one could probably write an interesting thesis on the last movies of aging master directors, Kurosawa's "Madadayo" and Huston's "The Dead" spring to mind.  Without perhaps realising it, all of these are contemplations on mortality -- exuberant celebrations of life, with the underlying understanding that all things pass.  Unfortunately!  This film takes its title from Garrison Keillor's weekly radio show from St. Paul, Minnesota, where the acts and the homespun philosophy seem to exist in a time warp of their own.

Altman has always been best known for his high-powered ensemble casts and this movie is no exception.  As singing duos, we have Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin plus Woody Harrelson paired with John C. Reilly.  In addition there are Keillor himself, Kevin  Klein, Tommy Lee Jones, Lindsay Lohan, and Virginia Madsen playing a mysterious woman who may well be the Angel of Death.  Add to this mix some lesser-known but familiar faces plus the actual musicians and sound-effects men from the show. The old-time music is wonderfully performed and Meryl Streep gives an absolutely knock-out performance as half of a sister team (and Tomlin is no slouch either); having found her hard to take in the past, she is really beginning to grow on me (I guess I'm getting soft around the edges).  Harrelson and Reilly add a leavening of corny but amusing humour and even Lohan gave a more than game singing performance.

I wish I still had my new Altman movies to look forward to, but this was a good a one as any to add to his memorial viewings.