A Prairie Home Companion 2006 Staring Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan

Selected Product:

A Prairie Home Companion

DVD
Format: Full Screen
Director: Robert Altman
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Release Date: October 2006
UPC: 794043105418
List Price: ~~$19.98~~

Average Customer Rating:

Similar Products

A Prairie Home Companion With Garrison Keillor (30th Anniversary Season Celebration)
UPC: 011661321892
List Price:~~$19.98~~

A Prairie Home Companion Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Deluxe Limited Edition CD + DVD]
UPC: 794043906725
List Price:~~$18.98~~

Thank You for Smoking (Widescreen Edition)
UPC: 024543255048
List Price:~~$19.98~~

Our Review: To use our price comparison search engine and get the cheapest price, please click on the "Find the Cheapest Price" button located above and let us locate the best place to buy A Prairie Home Companion (2006) starring Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan.

At this time we have not yet written a review for A Prairie Home Companion (2006) starring Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan. Please continue checking back to this page as we are constantly adding reviews.

For your convenience we have added a summary for A Prairie Home Companion (2006) starring Meryl Streep and Lindsay Lohan, supplied by Amazon.com.

Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Summary:
Robert Altman and Garrison Keillor combine reality and fantasy in this smooth, ebullient take on the long-running Prairie Home Companion radio show. Set during the show's fictitious last broadcast--the host station has been bought--the film has plenty of elements from the real PHC radiocasts, including a live audience and the sensational Shoe band. The onstage program is mostly music numbers, a beguiling mix of standards and old-style country. However, the show's usual comedy sketches are never presented, save for the commercial parodies--this may be a PHC show, but Lake Wobegone is never mentioned. Instead, the sketches are played out as backstage banter that feautres the Johnson Sisters (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin), a harried stage hand (Maya Rudolph), a former listener turned angel (Virginia Madsen), and Keillor himself (a crusty alter-ego named simply G.K.). A few characters from the real PHC are given life: the singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty and gumshoe Guy Noir are embodied by Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, and Kevin Kline, respectively. Old flames are fanned, stories are spun, new talents are found (Lindsay Lohan has a chance to shine as Streep's daughter) and everyone wonders if G.K. will do something to ebb the tide of cancellation (personified by Tommy Lee Jones as the corporate Axeman). All of the actors do right as singers, and seem to be having the time of their life. Keillor's screenplay is perfect fodder for Altman's usual brand of storytelling, as characters babble on with the camera picking them up often in mid-thought. The film appeared a few months after Altman received an honorary Oscar, and the director is still at the top of his game, creating this smile-inducing, song-filled time, ending with an ethereal last musical number. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Rating:

Meryl's accent is worth it

Customer Rating:

I have been a fan of Prairie Home Companion (radio) for a while and think this movie is a great companion piece.
No, it is not a film version of the radio broadcast. It wasn't set up to be. It starts off as a Guy Noir mystery - one of the components of the radio program which some of the reviewers here seem to be missing.
The movie is a behind-the-scenes look into the program, and on the evening of it's final performance. Thankfully it is just a movie plot. The radio program continues to delight listeners with it's live broadcast every week from Minnesota.

Meryl Streep's Minnesota accent and speech dialect are absolutely amazing!
I personally don't know folks from that region, but if you ever watched FARGO, and listened to many of the characters voicings (most notably Margie, the investigating police officer played by the very wonderful Frances McDormand) and compared Meryl Streep's interpretation, you'd just have to admire her commitment and ability. She sings quite nicely, too.

The slower pacing the film may have that some folks may find boring is more an indication of their own lack of patience or tolerance. Everything commited to film doesn't have to be geared to short attention span types.

Time Better Spent Alone

Customer Rating:

I've never much cared for Altman, and this film displays his fashionably nihilistic, aimlessly sappy meanderings at their worst. A grave injustice to Garrison Keillor's quirky weekly broadcast and a typically Altman-esque waste of a great cast. Surprisingly, it's Lindsay Lohan who acquits herself most admirably with understated comic performances that cannot be missed: so, both for her scene delivering a mangled rendition of "Frankie and Johnny" and for her portrayal of an adolescent's interactions with her harried show-biz mom (played well by an otherwise criminally underutilized Meryl Streep), this movie might possibly perhaps be a little worth watching ... almost - but for those scenes alone and for nothing else! Blech. Double-blech. Avoid!

Decent, but not enough like the radio show

Customer Rating:

I really wanted to see this movie because in one of my college classes, part of our assignment was to listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" the original radio show. They radio shows always amused me and I loved a lot of the fake commercials and really liked the bits with the detective. So when I heard the movie was coming out, I figured it would be good and I wanted to see it to relive a little of my college life.

I must say that compared to the original radio shows, the movie kind of lacked in humor. Some of the greatest Prairie Home Companion bits were left out. And they made the show seem like it was a lot of singing, when the original radio show wasn't. And I will admit that I hated Lindsey Lohan's character. It really pulled away from what I felt the original Companion was like, and he song about death at the end was upsetting.

A lot of the parts of the movie seemed to drag on and made it hard to really get into it. I found myself getting up to do random other activities around the room because it a bit too long and not fast paced enough to really keep someones' attention. I find it a little silly that as a radio show, it was more enthralling then it was as a live action movie.

All in all, I was slightly disappointed in the movie. The only comic relief in the whole thing the cowboy duos' (the one with Woody Harrelson) songs. I'm just a little disappointed that they took this great old fashioned radio show, cut out their best bits (although you do get a bit of the detective bit feeling in Kevin Kline's character), and made into a complete musical.

I guess if you hadn't heard the original shows, its not that bad of a movie, but prefer the radio shows to the movie by far.

(And to be honest, I still find the "angel's" role in the movie to be completely pointless since she really doesn't do anything to help anyone on the radio show except the old lady having the affair with old perverted guy that dies).

Star-packed evening of A Prairie Home Companion live radio broadcast... with a twist

Customer Rating:

If you've ever listened to a radio show of A Prairie Home Companion, this will be a treat. You'll see a fictionalized setup of all the hustle and bustle that goes into one of these productions: the props, notes, the band, make-up (and make-out) rooms, and more.

If you've never listened to A Prairie Home Companion, you may be left scratching your head, wondering why anyone would think a recording of a radio broadcast could be movie-worthy.

Garrison Keillor's voice and persona weaves this show together, but the surprisingly strong acting and singing performances of Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, Lindsay Lohan, and John Reilly really make this more than simply a taping of a show.

The plot is "the last show" for A Prairie Home Companion. How will people act? What will they say and sing? The non-Companion listeners who are viewing may say, "who cares?"

Rated PG-13 for "risqué humor." Make this a PG rating at most. This is a movie for the NPR crowd... you know who you are!

[2 1/2 stars] -- For fans of the radio series only, and even then...

Customer Rating:

I really like the radio series, and I get/appreciate Keillor's dry sense of humor, so I wanted to like this. Unfortunately, this thing's flatter than week-old soda.

If you're unfamiliar with the APHC radio show, you'll miss quite a few of the inside jokes (such as the mock ads and background characters) and quite likely scratch your head in puzzlement. Then again, hardcore fans may end up doing that as well, though for different reasons.

Technically, the plot is thin and there are tons of red herrings, loose ends, etc. but that's actually typical for Keillor; if you know the radio show, you'll be a bit acclimated to this, but novices coming in cold will most likely have a problem with it.

Keillor's greatest strengths are his eloquent command of the English language and his astounding ability as a storyteller. Sure, he's the king of the "shaggy dog story" but I personally don't care, as he paints such rich pictures with his words. Unfortunately, this just doesn't translate to film, as half the enjoyment is his narration. Likewise, he has a rather sharp (if dry and high-brow) sense of humor, but this was sadly lacking from the film. I chuckled once, and cracked a smile twice.

Probably my least-favorite aspect of the radio show are the musical numbers, and unfortunately that ends up being a large portion of the movie.

Of course, I can see people taking the opposite stance, and liking the film for precisely the reasons I didn't. Still, the film failed to engage me, and I honestly tried to like it. Sadly, about half way through I was conscious I was wanting it to be over with.

Per the credits, Garrison was solely responsible for the screenplay. He should stick to more familiar mediums that he truly excells in.