# A Prairie Home Companion movie discussion thread
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 12, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401 "2006-06-12T10:44:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/1 "2006-06-12T10:44:40Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board, the online community that time forgot and that decades could not improve, where the women are strong, the moderators good looking, and the posters are above average.
So, I just saw the movie version of A Prairie Home Companion, and I gotta say, I loved it. MUCH more serious than I was expecting it to be, even with the wacky characters involved.
So, what did everyone else think? Please put movie spoilers in spoiler boxes of course, please. đ
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2006, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/2 "2006-06-12T10:52:08Z")
Garisson Keillorâs cool, but Iâve always favored Tom Bodett.
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### Author:  [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2006, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/3 "2006-06-12T11:42:23Z")
You know, thinking about it, I had no business posting to a movie thread for a film I havenât even seen yet just so I can make an offhand remark about how I prefer another radio storyteller.
So to make up for it, hereâs a link to [Ebertâs review of the movie](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060608/REVIEWS/60606001), which he gives 4 stars and an ethusiastic thumbs up.
Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan onstage with Keillor doing a reading. Wow. Thatâs gotta be up there with Woody Allen and Sylvester Stallone as buddies in âAntz.â
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2006, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/4 "2006-06-12T11:50:33Z")
I can usually trust Roger Ebert: if he likes something, I know that I wonât. And I didnât.
Garrison Keillor meets Robert Altman: rambling, incoherent, all talking and very little visual, and nothing happens. Well, except an angel wanders around. But seriously, nothing happens. Tommy Lee Jones comes to stop the show and doesnât, but the show is stopped anyway. The dramatic twist in Act III is that thereâs an extra six minutes to fill? Sheeeeesh. I nodded off several times. Good music, though: it should have just been released as a CD, not a movie.
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### Author:  [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/5 "2006-06-14T03:05:55Z")
OK, a question regarding the last sceneâŚ
Theyâre all sitting at Mickeyâs diner and Lindsey breezes in, has her mom sign over a power of attorney and then abruptly takes off⌠hunh?
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2006, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/6 "2006-06-14T06:13:19Z")
> [@stpauler](#):
>
> OK, a question regarding the last sceneâŚ
>
> Theyâre all sitting at Mickeyâs diner and Lindsey breezes in, has her mom sign over a power of attorney and then abruptly takes off⌠hunh?
Well, I think a theme of the movie was that not everything gets a happy ending, or, for that matter, does everything get an ending. Whilst the show appears to be getting itself going again, itâs obvious that at least Meryl Streepâs character has fallen on hard times, and her daughter is trying to help, while expressing her frustration with her motherâs situation. One thing I liked was after the rather cold conversation between her and her mother, was the quick smile and âOh hey!â wave she gave Dusty as she was on her way out the door, which is pretty much consistent with how Lolaâs character acted through the whole movie.
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### Author:  [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/7 "2006-06-14T13:01:46Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> âŚBut seriously, nothing happensâŚI nodded off several times. Good music, though: it should have just been released as a CD, not a movie.
Which is kind of why I liked it. It was a long, humorous, rambling story with good music that didnât go any where, just like the radio show. Of course a lot of people hate the radio show for this reason, so obviously itâs not everyones thing. But I liked how the whole movie âfeltâ like one of GKâs stories, and how well that worked in movie form.
Yea, the last 6 minutes was a little weird.
Also the characters from the original show (Dusty, Lefty, Guy) were a lot different then their counterparts in the movie. In the radio show they are all left overs from an earlier time trying to cope with modern fads and fasions. The movie totally dropped this.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/8 "2006-06-14T13:58:52Z")
Having not seen the movie I canât confirm the validity of a review I read but it seems like I might have the same view.
The reviewer said they were disappointed because they were a big fan of Prairie Home Companion with all itâs quirky real life characters and felt that it was kind of a pointless excercise to watch actors pretending to be quirky real life characters when they should have shown the real ones in the first place.
Kind of like going to see a movie about the Rolling Stones but instead of getting a documentary with the real band members they use actors instead. Seems self-defeating.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/9 "2006-06-18T03:55:39Z")
Iâm familiar with the radio show, but I havenât heard it that many times. So while I canât speak to the differences or whether or not there was a point to adapting the story, I did like the camaraderie and the abundant weirdness on display in the film.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2006, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/10 "2006-06-18T19:07:37Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> Kind of like going to see a movie about the Rolling Stones but instead of getting a documentary with the real band members they use actors instead. Seems self-defeating.
So you would have had GK play himself, Lefty and Guy Noir?
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/11 "2006-06-18T19:32:37Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#):
>
> I can usually trust Roger Ebert: if he likes something, I know that I wonât. \
đ I can echo this sentiment.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/12 "2006-06-18T22:17:04Z")
I thoroughly enjoyed the film. If you donât take it seriously, going in all ready to find deep meaning, you should enjoy it, too.
Does it occur to anyone else that [Rainn Wilson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainn_Wilson) must be [Garrison Keilorâs](http://www.mindspring.com/~celestia/keillor/) illegitimate son?
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/13 "2006-06-19T00:52:05Z")
I liked the movie, but I felt there was something between Keillorâs and Streepâs characters that had been cut out â some sort of final confrontation.
And the moment Virginia Madsen showed up I knew exactly why she was there. Itâs strange - I havenât had a plot revelation hit me like that in years.
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/14 "2006-06-19T02:57:19Z")
My only carp is that Kevin Kline seemed to be in a different movie than everybody else. While they were trying to approximate naturalistic conversation, he was mugging like Inspector Clouseau and speaking in a purely presentational style.
Aside from that, I loved it. Iâm not very familiar with the radio show. I was surprised at what a good comedy team Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly make.
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/15 "2006-06-19T05:33:58Z")
> [@Krokodil](#):
>
> My only carp is that Kevin Kline seemed to be in a different movie than everybody else. While they were trying to approximate naturalistic conversation, he was mugging like Inspector Clouseau and speaking in a purely presentational style.
>
> Aside from that, I loved it. Iâm not very familiar with the radio show. I was surprised at what a good comedy team Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly make.
Actually, thatâs kinda the point of Guy Noir. In the original radio show, he was a somewhat clueless private eye who found himself caught up in the strangest situations (in fact, this weekend on the radio, he was in Chicago trying to ferret out renegrade blue grass banjo players in a theatre). In the movie, rather than having Guy be a character on the radio show, they apparantly decided to have him be a somewhat delusional security guard. He didnât quite fit in, but then, neither did the Lady in White who he kept running into throughout the movie.
Hey, random question, did anyone else get that sort of connection between the Lady In White and the Axe Man? As if she knew him from somewhere previous? (my theory in the spoilerbox below)
I got the feeling that he was the lover she was on her way to see when she died. In any case, their jobs were somewhat similar, with her there to oversee the death of a person, and him to oversee the death of the show.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/16 "2006-06-19T05:41:30Z")
I didnât think about it that way, **Raguleader** , and itâs an interesting idea. But maybe he would have had a stronger reaction to seeing her around. And even if Kline didnât quite fit in (his character was supposed to be separate from the others, and he was more stylized), I thought he was very funny.
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/17 "2006-06-19T05:55:57Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> I didnât think about it that way, **Raguleader** , and itâs an interesting idea. But maybe he would have had a stronger reaction to seeing her around. And even if Kline didnât quite fit in (his character was supposed to be separate from the others, and he was more stylized), I thought he was very funny.
Yaknow, though I seriously doubt it would ever happen, I would pay money to go see Kevin Kline in a Guy Noir movie, perhaps following him as he persues those âother dealsâ he claims to have going on.
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### Author:  [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/18 "2006-06-19T08:15:04Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> The reviewer said they were disappointed because they were a big fan of Prairie Home Companion with all itâs quirky real life characters and felt that it was kind of a pointless excercise to watch actors pretending to be quirky real life characters when they should have shown the real ones in the first place.
Huh? Guy Noir, Lefty, everyone in Lake Wobegon, all the sponsers, etc. arenât _real_ characters. Hell, Garrison Keillor is even partly a made up character. Whom are you refering to?
Also I noticed that the show never mentioned Lake Wobegon. It occurs to me this may be because a different studio bought the rights to a Wobegon movie. Anyone know?
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### Author:  [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/19 "2006-06-19T12:27:06Z")
> [@Malodorous](#):
>
> Huh? Guy Noir, Lefty, everyone in Lake Wobegon, all the sponsers, etc. arenât _real_ characters. Hell, Garrison Keillor is even partly a made up character. Whom are you refering to?
>
> Also I noticed that the show never mentioned Lake Wobegon. It occurs to me this may be because a different studio bought the rights to a Wobegon movie. Anyone know?
I figured the Lake Wobegon stuff got dropped because the movie takes place at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota (where the actual radio show is recorded, and where most of the movie was filmed). Having GK read the news from Lake Wobegon wouldnât make a lot of sense in that context.
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### Author:  [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)
#### Post date: [June 19, 2006, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-prairie-home-companion-movie-discussion-thread/360401/20 "2006-06-19T16:19:22Z")
I thought the âDangerous Womanâ making sure the âAxemanâ takes the shortcut was pretty grim for Keillor, but maybe Iâm not that familiar with his stuff. Why would an angel do that, especially when the theater is torn down anyway? And who was she coming for in the last scene?
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