> 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?
Robert Altman began by buying the rights to do a Lake Wobegon movie. He spent a while trying to make such a film, but he couldn’t make it work right. He attended some of the tapings of the radio show and decided it would be more interesting to make a film set during a single show of The Prairie Home Companion, so he made that instead.
Afraid I don’t follow you here… but I’m gonna go re-watch the movie with a female friend on Wednesday, so I’ll keep an eye out for something like that.
It didn’t strike me until after the movie, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it was supposed to be interpreted. Asphodel finds GK, Rhonda, Yolanda and Guy in Mickey’s in that scene; Lola’s just left. There’s a closeup of Guy as he watches her approach and points at the others like he’s expecting her to give him a tip about who she’s there for. You can see from his face that he doesn’t get an answer. Then comes the final scene, apparently from the reunion tour they were discussing at the diner. We see everybody else performing. The only one missing is Guy.
Well, the scene in the diner COULD mean that, now that I’ve watched it again, but the part where they are on stage after that, I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be the reunion or not, as they’re all wearing exactly the same outfits that they did through most of the movie. Couldn’t see enough of the stage to figure out if it was supposed to be the same stage or not.
And after a second viewing, I am CONVINCED that my thoery concerning Lola is correct
I think she is supposed to secretly be the child of Garrison and Yolanda, since she shows no sign of knowing that they were ever involved together, and GK gets REALLY vague during the story of how her father met her mom, starting with when Lola says “And that’s how I was born!”
Just saw it tonight – liked it okay, didn’t love it.
Re: the penultimate scene in the diner vs. the final scene on stage:
the problem with Marley23’s theory is that Guy isn’t a performer, so the fact that he wasn’t onstage in what may or may not have been the farewell tour doesn’t prove anything.
That’s true, but he was the first character we met and (sort of) the narrator. To me, his absence was conspicuous - and without it being him, I don’t know why Asphodel came to the diner in the first place.
I agree that I thought it was him (he?) for whom she came (ykes, that’s still an ugly sentence after three rewrites…), but am saying what you offered as evidence for that theory doesn’t really work.
I saw PHC on July 4 (kinda appropriate for a piece of Americana). I loved some of the performances–would love to see Streep and/or Tomlin get a nomination for Best Supporting Actress–and Kevin Kline was a great Guy Noir.
However (and with apologies to those who believe him to be an auteur), I had the same problem I have with most Altman films–lots of talking, some strange moments, but in the end, feeling unsatisfied.
Virginia Madsen’s angel character: If they had left it at her story about dying while listening to the radio show I would have accepted the inclusion of her character. But, having her be responsible for Axe Man’s demise with no effect on the future of the show just left me feeling empty. I understand the “not everyone gets a happy ending” theory, but I like things to happen for a reason . There was just no reason for killing off Axe Man
Altman felt that a Lake Wobegon movie didn’t work, but this did? I’m surprised that GK hasn’t publicly complained about the heavy-handed, depressing ending tacked on to a film based on his folksy, light-hearted concept. Or has he?
This review probably contains spoilers. I suppose I should warn you, but if you have a lick of sense, you will avoid this film like a pestilence.
Garrison Keillor practically jacks off on Meryl Streep, the focus was so worshipful. I tend to wonder if Keillor wrote this just so he could co-star with her.
Other than that, it was one of the most plodding, pointless, self-indulgent, hermetically-sealed and masturbatory pieces of steaming shite I’ve ever allowed myself to sit through. I’d like to take the majority of reviewers who spoke favorably of this tedious vanity piece and wring their necks until they give me my money and time back. If you are not already a blindly, slavishly worshipful fan of the Lake Wobegone mythos, do not walk, run away, as fast as you can. Two especially dreadful performaces were delivered by Lindsay Lohan, who can’t sing and can’t act, yet is given a bizarre role only a total pro could pull off because the character’s quirks are so completely random and thoroughly undeveloped. Predicably, she butchers an already rancid carcass of a role, but I wasn’t moved to pity her, because I got the sense even a well-conceived character would have been wasted on her. The one actor I did feel pity for was Virginia Madsen, who is forced (presumably at gunpoint, and hopped up on barbituates) to wander the set drowsily as a trechcoated “angel of death”, occasionally yammering on about the circumstances of her own death (her dialogue with Keillor on the subject has got to be one of the most painful moments in so-called art cinema I’ve witnessed in about 20 years) and muttering vapid platitudes meant, I suppose, to comfort the more geriatric members of the cast about shitting the bed.
One character actually does. Well, he more “farts the bed”, a bit of inexplicable pooty humor that goes on entirely too long (more than one second was gratuitous, IMO). Oh, Woody Harrelson and John Reilley have perhaps the only redeemable moment of this film, the entire fiasco’s second-most-lowbrow moment, actually, after the dead-guy-farting gag, doing a goofy potty-mouthed cowboy act. “Bad Jokes” was their tune. Find a recording of that and skip the rest of this exercise in ersatz-surrealist onanism. Garrison Keillor deserves having his broadcasting license revoked after this insult, IMO, for impersonating an entertainer.
I know, I know, it’s November and the last post about this movie was in July. But I just had to share my pain.
I’m home, sick—with a fever, which may account for my reaction, but I don’t think so—and I had this movie to watch. Now, I LOVE Prairie Home Companion, except for the music which I find mostly tedious. And I love all the actors in the movie, with the exception of Lindsey Lohan (see above post for my sentiments exactly). But…WTF was this movie? It was largely a musical, with intermittent dialogue. It seemed derivative, the parts that made sense anyway. The old guy dying? I thought I was going to see a repeat of Clerks—you know, when she goes into the bathroom and has sex with a stiff? Angel of death? How many movies has THAT been in? All of the religious platitudes, all of the stupid stories that didn’t say anything, Lindsey Lohan—AGAIN. And a dumb, pointless ending. I finally started fast forwarding through the musical pieces. Dusty and Lefty’s dirty joke song I did listen to and thought it was marginally cute but way more vulgar than PHC usually is.
Anyway, I hated it and if I hadn’t been laying on the couch in a febrile state, I would have chucked that DVD right back to netflix. Blah.
First of all, I happen to think Lindey Lohan is somewhat talented, and thought she did a fine job singing. But, the mopey, brooding crap was distractingly annoying.
Starting this movie, I thought that the “Altman style” of movie making meshed perfectly with the controlled chaos of a multi-character radio show.
But, after I finished wanking me keillor over making such a profound connection – which took about 20 minutes – I was in full-on WTF mode.
I did like seeing Garrison on screen. He’s so ugly and goofy, but seems to be such a natural entertainer.
But, as a movie, it was pointless. I kept thinking, “either make a movie about the last day of a radio show” or “make a documentary of a radio show”. This occupied some silly middle ground with Kline’s buffoonery, and the angel of death. I found Streep annoying.
I really just wanted to watch Garrison, Bucky and Lefty for the whole movie.
I liked the film, and I think a lot of people are missing the point. The movie (as Altman has said) is about death. And it’s not just the Angel bit – it shows up in a lot of oddball ways (Lindsay Lohan’s obsession with it, for instance, the death of the radio show, as well as the death of radio as a form of mass entertainment, the joke that kills, etc.). The final scene is nice: the Angel of Death is there for someone, but it’s left ambiguous as to who.
This has little to do with the radio show, BTW; that’s just a hook to hang the narratives (like most Altman films, there are many). It’s a movie that shows how death walks among us, and that, in order to ignore that, we need to go out and sing.
A very interesting film overall. I’d like to see it again some time.