Garrison Keillor and Robert Altman. One has a radio show, the other makes movies. In each man's case, either you like his
work or you don't, period, and no amount of cajoling from the other side will make you change your mind. I've listened to Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" on NPR and found it mildly amusing at best, a folksy little program with jokes that I understand and appreciate, though I always wonder why his live audience is laughing so much harder than I am. Altman, meanwhile, has made films both brilliant ( "Gosford Park," "The Player," "MASH") and awful ( "Dr. T and the Women" ), as well as a few, like "Nashville," that are beloved by film connoisseurs and that I just don't get. These two icons of love-him-or-hate-him entertainment have collaborated to make "A Prairie Home Companion," a movie that is both a film version of Keillor's radio show and a backstage ensemble comedy in the traditional Altman style. It retains Keillor's wry, cornball sensibilities (he wrote the screenplay), and Altman makes his presence as director unobtrusive, favoring long, unbroken takes from Steadicams that float around the theater like a silent and omniscient observer.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.