Monday, June 12, 2006

Prairie Home Companion

I find watching Robert Altman films to be tedious. They stereotypically focus on intimate moments between several characters all held together by a loosely constructed plot. A Prairie Home Companion is no different. There are lots of neat well done individual scenes, specifically Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep who are amazing as emotional singing sisters.

The film follows the last broadcast of the radio show A Prairie Home Companion with intercut "behind the scenes" scenes. It is pretty close to actually listening to a broadcast of the show on public radio some Saturday. Well that with intercut spirituality and character driven scenes that add little to the plot.

I laughed at times but overall this movie didn't really go anywhere that was interesting. It just kind of soldiered along for close on two hours and then just ends. I'm sure many will enjoy this film and in the end I am forced to conclude that this movie will be like the joke that made me laugh hardest in this film. The movie even acknowledges the joke isn't really that funny.

"Two penguins come together on the ice. One says to the other, 'you look like you're wearing a tuxedo.' The second says 'what makes you think I'm not?'"

I knew it wasn't funny but I laughed. Still the movie didn't strike me in the same way. It just felt tedious.

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