Saw this the other night, and enjoyed some of it. But it isn't a very good film. Two problems. First, the script. The writing was pretty damn bad. The other problem, Garrison Keillor. Perhaps the only thing that can be said in favor of his writing, was that he was able to write himself as a self-absorbed, egomaniacal twit quite well (unless it was the professional screenwriter who obviously tried to save the script deserves the credit).

That said, there are some brilliant performances by the actors. Meryl Streep was good, but she didn't come close to nailing the Minnesota accent. The master of the Minnesota accent remains Frances McDormand in 'Fargo'. The Virginia Madsen and Kevin Kline characters were pointless, and did nothing to move the tedious dim witted plot along. There were other characters that easily could have been cut.

Art direction and the look of the film was stunning and very Altman. That diner (which is apparently in St Paul?) was very cool.

Bottom line for me--I'd much rather Altman had done a film on the original: the Grand Old Opry. A Prairie Home Companion is just a rip off that, a cash cow for Keillor & his station. And Keillor's condescension towards those he writes about (and made his fortune mocking) was palpable in this film. Which left a bad taste in my mouth, just like his radio show does.

---

Two threads combined. -JoeClone