Prairie Home Companion
When the movie was over, I went straight Tower Records, across Lincoln Square. My hunch that the sound track would be on sale approached certainty, and it was not mistaken. The minute the CD began to play, when I got home, I was put back in touch with the power of Prairie Home Companion, a film that is almost impossible to understand in retrospect.
The Boy Friend meets Stop Making Sense, but not until both are too old to raise too much hell?
Meryl Streep seems to be the key to the movie. Playing a not over-bright country singer, Yolanda Johnson, she is dismayed not so much that the radio show she's appearing in - I'm not sure that the words "Prairie Home Companion" are ever spoken - is airing its final broadcast but that the show's host, GK (Garrison Keillor) refuses to mention this fact to the audience. Because she can't share her adieux with her fans, Yolanda is beset by an agitation that is always troubling her face. Surely it's wrong to go away without saying goodbye! It's wrong for a death - even the death of a radio show - not to be noticed. Ms Streep manages to mark the entire movie with a sense of the utter fragility of things. I can't think of an absolutely non-violent film more burdened with intimations of mortality.
But the show must go on, and Prairie Home Companion is primarily a show. A very, very meta show, to be sure. It is not really like its long-running namesake. (What will I hear if I tune at six tonight? A rerun? A totally fresh live show would be quite a kick to hear, the day after its filmed termination opened nationally.) There is no monologue, no Lake Wobegon. There are no skits. It is really just a concert, which you'll get to hear only if you buy the CD. The film is too busy running off to attend to a lighter-than-air backstager that involves, among the more usual elements, an angel of death. How meta is this: the angel (Virginia Madsen) has a little chat with GK (who is not the object of her visit) and in this chat she tells him that her mortal life came to an end because she was laughing so hard at one of his jokes while listening to the show on the radio and navigating an icy road. GK re-tells the joke, but the angel doesn't find it very funny anymore - it's one of those wry jokes that hit you at a particular moment and convulse you with laughter, or otherwise barely raise a smile.
Everyone in this ensemble cast is very good. Rather than wear you out, I'm going to mention only Woody Harrelson and John C Reilly. Who would have thought that Mr Reilly is an all-around bigger guy? He makes Mr Harrelson look rather wraith-like, which shocked me, because the last time I saw Mr Harrelson he was playing the demon-afflicted and very frightening husband of Julianne Moore (who is, I gather, tiny), in The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio. These gents made a fine duo as Lefty and Dusty, the singing cowboys. They have two numbers onstage, and one of them, "Bad Jokes" is an example of hilarious bad taste that will either convulse you with laughter or...
Will Robert Altman make another movie? I suppose that everyone has heard by now that, when Lindsay Lohan showed up for a shooting four hours late, Meryl Streep took her aside and read her the riot act, asserting that "Robert Altman is only staying alive so that he can make this film." Well, it's a good story, and, on the evidence, Ms Lohan got the message. I'm not a fan of Mr Altman's films, but I'm crazy about Gosford Park. Prairie Home Companion is a close second.
Almost forgot: Meryl Streep can really, really sing! Any time she wants to cut an album, I'll be happy to buy it!
