Sunday, January 07, 2007

A Prairie Home Companion

Garrison Keillor is a bit like Guinness or Marmite - an acquired taste which you either love or hate. The Simpsons captured it well - Homer and Bart were watching telly and zapped to a show with Garrison Keillor on it. The TV studio audience were in hysterics. Bart turned to Homer, "What's so funny?" Homer shrugs, "I dunno."

Robert Altman's last film was A Prairie Home Companion, an ensemble piece set around a recording of the eponymous show. If you like Keillor or have heard the show - which is a long running institution on National Public Radio in the USA and is broadcast on BBC7 (the best radio station in the UK by far) in the UK - then you'll 'get' the film and enjoy it. If you don't like Keillor, or indeed Altman's ensemble film making, you'll hate it.

Overall it's a quiet, low key and very 'brown-looking' final piece from Altman. The cast are good - especially Woody Harrelson - and it's a little reminiscent of Nashville, an earlier Altman work. It's neither Altman's best film, nor a masterpiece, but it is rather lovely.

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