A Prairie Home Companion (film)

A Prairie Home Companion
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Robert Altman Paul Thomas Anderson (Uncredited)
Produced by	Robert Altman Fisher Stevens
Written by	Garrison Keillor
Starring	Woody Harrelson Tommy Lee Jones Garrison Keillor Kevin Kline Lindsay Lohan Virginia Madsen John C. Reilly Maya Rudolph Meryl Streep Lily Tomlin
Music by	Garrison Keillor
Cinematography	Edward Lachman
Edited by	Jacob Craycroft
Distributed by	Picturehouse New Line Cinema
Release dates	February 12, 2006 (2006-02-12) (Berlin International Film Festival) June 9, 2006 (2006-06-09) (United States)
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10 million[1]
Box office	$26 million

A Prairie Home Companion is a 2006 American ensemble comedy film directed by Robert Altman and is his final film. The film is a fictional representation of behind-the-scenes activities at the long-running public radio show of the same name. The film received mostly positive reviews and was a moderate box office success on its small budget.

The film features an ensemble cast including Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Tommy Lee Jones, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin, Garrison Keillor, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, and Lindsay Lohan.

Plot

A long-running live radio show is in danger of being canceled by new owners of the company that holds both radio station "WLT" and the theater where the show is broadcast. The film takes place on the night of the show's last performance. The show has two visitors: an angel calling herself Asphodel (Virginia Madsen) comes to comfort the people who work on the show and to escort one of them to the afterlife, while "the Axeman" (Tommy Lee Jones), a representative of the new owners, arrives to judge whether the show should be canceled. He makes it clear that the show is not what he considers modern popular programming, and though he too is escorted by the angel, the show is shut down anyway. In an epilogue at the end of the film the former cast members are reunited at Mickey's Diner. Their conversation pauses as they are joined by Asphodel.

Cast

• Garrison Keillor as Himself
• Meryl Streep as Yolanda Johnson
• Lily Tomlin as Rhonda Johnson
• Lindsay Lohan as Lola Johnson
• Woody Harrelson as Dusty
• John C. Reilly as Lefty
• Tommy Lee Jones as the Axeman
• Kevin Kline as Keillor's radio character Guy Noir
• Virginia Madsen as the Dangerous Woman "Asphodel"
• L. Q. Jones as Chuck Akers
• Tim Russell as the Stage Manager
• Maya Rudolph as Molly
• Robin and Linda Williams as Themselves (singing duo)
• Tom Keith as the Sound-Effects Guy
• Sue Scott as the Make-Up Artist

Production notes

To receive insurance for the shoot, Robert Altman had to hire Paul Thomas Anderson as a "backup" director to observe filming at all times and be prepared to take over for Altman in case of his incapacity.^[2][3][4] Using the working title The Last Show, principal photography for the film began on June 29, 2005, at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota (the usual venue for the radio show). Filming ended on July 28, 2005. The film was the second major picture (after North Country, starring Charlize Theron and Harrelson) to be filmed in Minnesota in 2005.

Because the Fitzgerald is a rather small building, other stage theaters in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region had been considered as stand-ins. With some effort, the necessary film equipment was crammed into the structure. The basement was also used for sets due to lack of space. Set design had to make the show more visually interesting, and fake dressing rooms were used in the film (the movie's production designer noted that Keillor's actual dressing room is "about the size of a very, very small bathroom"). Mickey's Diner, a downtown St. Paul landmark, is also featured.

On November 1, 2005, the Star Tribune reported that an early screening in New York City for film distributors resulted in a heavy bidding war. Picturehouse bought the rights, and company president Bob Berney, "aiming to capitalize on the name recognition of the 31-year-old radio program, recommended that the title revert to A Prairie Home Companion. 'At the screening, Garrison said that to broaden the film's appeal, they were thinking about changing the name to Savage Love, so we may have an argument there,' Berney said."

Reception

Critics

A Prairie Home Companion opened the 2006 South by Southwest film festival on March 10, then premiered in St. Paul, on May 3, 2006, at the Fitzgerald Theater, which had projection and sound equipment brought in for that purpose. The film's stars arrived in ten horse-drawn carriages. Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News anchored his newscast from neighboring Minneapolis, Minnesota, that night so that he would be able to attend.

Critics' general reaction to the film was favorable, and it garnered an 81% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, saying, "What a lovely film this is, so gentle and whimsical, so simple and profound",^[5] and later added the film to his "Great Movies" list.^[6]

Michael Medved (himself a radio host) gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying, "The entertainment value stands somewhere between thin and nonexistent" and "[it may be] the worst movie ever made that pooled the talents of four (count ‘em – four!) Oscar winners".^[7]

Desson Thomson from The Washington Post fell in between, saying in a review headlined "Honey, You Could Ask for More" (a reference to the theme song of the radio show and film) that while the movie had its strengths, it was weaker than it should have been.^[8]

Awards

Meryl Streep won the Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Society of Film Critics for her role; Altman was also posthumously nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Director.

Box office

The film had a successful limited release in the United States and grossed $20,338,609 domestically and $25,978,442 worldwide.

Soundtrack

New Line released a soundtrack album featuring a mixture of old time music classics and contemporary songs written by Keillor.

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]

A Prairie Home Companion is the soundtrack the 2006 film A Prairie Home Companion. It was released on May 23, 2006 via New Line Records.

Track listing

Chart performance

Home media

The DVD was released on October 10, 2006. Special features included deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes documentary, and commentary by Altman and Kline. A Prairie Home Companion Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was released on May 23, 2006, by New Line.

References

External links

• Official website
• A Prairie Home Companion at the Internet Movie Database
• A Prairie Home Companion at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Prairie Home Companion at AllMovie
• A Prairie Home Companion at Box Office Mojo