Robert Altman has fashioned a brilliant career out of ensemble casting and ambient sound, rarely straying from the formula that has made him a legend in his own time. “A Prairie Home Companion” doesn’t break from the method, but suffers from narrative stagnation.
Garrison Keillor heads up an all-star lineup of down-home folks who work an old-fashioned radio variety show that has withstood the test of time and the onset of high-def TV and cutting-edge electronics.
But time marches on, and the St. Paul, Minn.-based show is on its last legs, forced into the show-biz graveyard by a curmudgeonly producer (Tommy Lee Jones) whose eye is on the bottom line. “Prairie” focuses on the last hurrah of the show, a bittersweet tribute to the radio of yore.
From singing siblings Yolanda and Rhonda (the excellent Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), to sandy trailhands Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly), the gang shakes the dust off the classics, lending a subtle sweetness and poignant warmth.
Unfortunately, screenwriter Keillor takes it over the top with a graceless tangent featuring a luminous mystery woman (Virginia Madsen) who furtively makes the rounds backstage and oversees a number of shifty melodramas.
Strike two is Kevin Kline as bumbling investigator-cum-security honcho Guy Noir; this character is goofy, underwritten and comically uneven. The musical numbers, backed by Keillor’s actual house band, are infused with energetic enthusiasm if not genuine talent.
If you’re tired of Lindsay Lohan gracing the society pages, there’s good news: The girl can act, and sort of carry a tune. As Yolanda’s impetuous daughter Lola, she brings unsullied teenage angst to the table, a breath of fresh air in an otherwise musty show of tears and mawkish sentiment.
Stars: ** 1/2
Rating: PG-13 for language and mature themes
Run Time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
