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A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

June. 09,2006
|
6.7
|
PG-13
| Drama Comedy Music

A look at what goes on backstage during the last broadcast of America's most celebrated radio show, where singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty, a country music siren, and a host of others hold court.

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Reviews

AniInterview
2006/06/09

Sorry, this movie sucks

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Lawbolisted
2006/06/10

Powerful

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TaryBiggBall
2006/06/11

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

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Philippa
2006/06/12

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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Python Hyena
2006/06/13

A Prairie Home Companion (2006): Dir: Robert Altman / Cast: Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, Lily Tomlin: Send off to old theatre radio where the voices heard seem personal. It is the final night before the radio theatre show is shut down and the screenplay sways between musical numbers and setup scenes where performers ready for their act. Kevin Kline is hilarious as a private investigator down on his luck. He observes everything and reflects upon the history of the event. Meryl Streep is excellent as she voices her hurt over a past relationship with the host. She and Lily Tomlin will perform a perfect pitch number before they farewell the place. Her daughter is played by Lindsay Lohan stealing scenes with her obsession of poetry and suicide. She also delivers an on stage performance that elevate her beyond what she has done before. Biggest weakness is Virginia Madsen as an angel who appears. and her subplot is totally unnecessary. Lily Tomlin plays Streep's sister and together they make up a country music act. It is great to see these two veterans share the screen as well as the stage. Director Robert Altman proves to know theatre radio and backs it up with superb art direction. Altman is a celebrated director whose films are often ensemble and different as with Gosford Park or Nashville. This film regards the dusk of years of love and the dawn of new beginnings. Score: 8 ½ / 10

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Rodrigo Amaro
2006/06/14

In a strange twist of fate, "A Prairie Home Companion", a movie about the last broadcast of a famous radio show was the final film directed by the great Robert Altman, on the same year he received an special Oscar for his long film contribution, after losing it several times and never winning for films like "Nashville", "MASH", "The Player", "Short Cuts", and "Gosford Park. His last work is a charming and nostalgic film that resurrects the simplicities of the radio just like Woody Allen did in "Radio Days"; a tale about life and death, and lots of music.Everything can happen during the last performance of a talented group of musicians who'll be out of work after a decision made by the guy who runs the show (played by Tommy Lee Jones) into transforming the Company into a parking place. So, in this last broadcast everything will happen, from the sudden death of one of the singers to the appearance of a beautiful ghost (Virginia Madsen); from dirty jokes played by a pair of singing cowboys (roles of John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson) to the debut of a young suicide girl as singer (Lindsay Lohan), and the incredible musical performance of two famous sisters (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin). "A Prairie..." is an excellent comedy with Altman's sense of humor present all the time, that kind of comedy that doesn't need rude jokes to exist, it is simple but effective and you'll be laughing at several moments (the 'Duct Tape' commercial with the guy improvising countless and humorous sound effects is the funniest part with Meryl and Lily teasing Garrison Keillor to make an advertisement about duct tape that keeps going absurd). The only thing that seems out of place, quite useless and totally expendable is the ghost presence in the story. P.T. Anderson, Altman's most famous disciple (and stand-by director for this film) knows how to convince us that things happen and that's it (the frog rain in "Magnolia" for instance). But here, while trying to show that anything can happen in the last broadcast, even the appearance of a female ghost can happen, the script went in the wrong direction, it was quite pointless such presence and if you watch closely you'll notice that even cutting her scenes the movie still would work. It doesn't ruin the film, it just damages a little.Altman ended brilliantly with this film, directing great actors in magnificent performances, a good and funny story, very uncompromising and very nice to watch. Better than all that you won't find! 10/10

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xbharath
2006/06/15

Was fantastic watching it. The music was great great great! Meryl Streep was awesome. GK was GK. Woody Harrelson has a surprisingly good role and the songs he played were both funny and lovely to hear. Meryl Streep probably cast a big shadow on the film, but surprisingly and to good effect most major actors played limited but significant roles and were well cast. It was like most Nordic films, though this has nothing to do with anything other than the PHC radio show. It had a feeling of celebration, music and joy, but it has an underlying tone of destruction and death to it. One softens the other naturally.

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mike-seaman
2006/06/16

A Praire Home Campanion, Robert Altman's last film, was one of his weakest. The film moves nowhere and does so slowly. It also attempts a sort of time dualism, the modern world is passing outside while the 1930s are moving on inside the radio world. It simply doesn't entirely work. Virginia Madsen's character as the Angel of Death is a failed experiment at metaphor and symbolism, creating nothing more than a largely useless character.The two most disappointing performances are Kevin Kline as Guy Noir, a character that is cardboard and his gags are largely lacking. The other is Lily Tomlin who seems to be sleepwalking through the film.The only characters I found even remotely interesting and amusing where performed by Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly, a pairing that played very well off of each other.Overall A Prairie Home Campanion is basically a fictional documentary about largely uninteresting people, telling uninteresting stories.

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