Friday, February 3, 2017

A Prairie Home Companion

I had a good time with this film, mainly for Kevin Kline's performance (clueless "security" guy for the Fitzgerald theater. The film also features Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lindsay Lohan, and of course Garrison Keillor. The rest of the supporting cast, including Maya Rudolph, is also good.

Keillor's screenplay is able to keep the movie going with what seems like a lot of rambling of old times between mini-groupings of character throughout the show, Robert Altman's camera eye just moves around like a fly on the wall at times, and then moving around, soaking in the conversations.

The film has a balance of life and death whimsy, and using the imminent closing of the show as a metaphor for the circle of life/death for its cinematic treatment. The only part I didn't really like was how the Virginia Madsen character was integrated into the film. But it's a fun and poignant film about doing something you love for a long time and being on the cusp of not being able to do it anymore.

I give it 3 stars, or a grade of B.

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