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How
would you like to go back in time, away from the TV talk shows, away
from the DJs and VJs and into the audio era? To the home-variety radio
show where to live audiences they broadcast music, all kinds,
honky-tonk, hill-billy, gospel, country, whatever and the broadcaster
(or the radio jockey, though he was never called that) was king. So
flashback to that bygone era and who better than Robert Altman to warm
the cockles of old hearts in A Prairie Home Companion.
At centre-stage are the Johnson sisters Yolanda (Meryl Streep) and Rhonda (Lilly Tomlin) and they reel out a string of old favourites from Red River Valley to My Minnesota Home and never stop talking (when they aren’t singing) of their dear mother who taught them to love music and whose smile was as wide as the Mississippi, and their sister Wanda who was magic before her shop-lifting act caused their father’s death. With them is Lola (Lindsay Lohan), Yolanda’s daughter who is there to see the curtain come down on that era and to fill in the blanks of their family life. Then we have those two cowboys Dusty (John C. Reilly) and Lefty (Woody Harrelson) and what a twosome they are, with witty words, and cute verses, ditties, naughtily strumming their guitars and looking for fun in the Bible belt where folks are brought up on suffering and and how to love it and if they are at times happy they are sure it wouldn’t last long. And of course the radio jockey GK (Garrison Keillor) for whom ad-libbing comes as easily as breathing. Delays are well looked after and the ads and sponsors can’t be forgotten. "Nobody gets old, nobody dies (on the radio), you go on with the show," he says and that’s how the line "the show goes on" was coined. And the Angel (Virginia Madson) of Death who lurks on the periphery, ready to strike. So it is a quaint, old
world atmosphere and trust Altman to weave his way in and around these
cameos. As in A Wedding, his early 1980s classic, the narrative
is strong, spiced with sparkling wit and some hilarious anecdotes. Of
course there’s a wealth of acting talent. Merryl Streep oozes charm
and sentimentality, an ageing Lilly Tomlin lends support and Lindsay
Lohan represents the generation gap. Woody Harrelson and John C.
Reilly are terrific and Tommy Lee Jones makes a fleeting appearance.
It’s fun and games and nostalgia and bonhomie, too, in a glorious
salute to that bygone era. Don’t miss it.
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