A Prairie Home Companion

last updated 8 January 2015

Robert Altman's latest treasure is 'œmore likely to inspire fondness than awe,' said A.O. Scott in The New York Times. And that perfectly suits the sensibility of its source, Garrison Keillor's long-running public-radio variety show. A Prairie Home Companion 'œnever set out to make anyone's hair stand on end.' Mostly, it offers reliable helpings of amusement and nostalgia, hearkening back to a time when broadcasting was a local affair sponsored by 'œmom-and-pop purveyors of biscuits and Norwegian pickled herring.' The somewhat diaphanous premise of the film is the imminent demise of the radio show, said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. A Texas media conglomerate has bought out the station, and so the cast prepares for and performs its last show with a (literal) angel of death in the wings. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin amusingly play the singing sisters Yolanda and Rhonda Johnson; Lindsay Lohan skulks about as Yolanda's death-obsessed daughter; and Kevin Kline is a stylish Guy Noir, gumshoe downgraded to security guard. It's 'œunconventional material for a movie,' said Colin Covert in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But the right directorial hands have crafted it into something special. 'œThose hands belong to Robert Altman,' who mixes in his own 'œtart, pessimistic humor.' He and Keillor have neatly knit together every thread in this fine yarn about coming to terms with aging, endings, and relinquishing the reins to youth.

Rating: PG-13