An independent within the studio system for his whole career, Altman bowed out fittingly with this elegiac piece on the passing of a heritage institution before the juggernauts of progress.The institution in question is Garrison Keillor’s real-world radio music variety show, A Prairie Home Companion, which has run since 1974 from St Paul, Minnesota, purveying a sweetly homely concoction of folk and country forever stuck in yesteryear, complete with anachronistic ads for products long gone, if ever real at all.
It’s all as cosy as cocoa and slippers, and so too is Altman’s lovingly crafted mirror production, one of his trademark ensemble pieces where plot is hardly a priority and the entertainment is simply in letting characters bounce dialogue off each other, never far from improvisation. There’s a half-hearted stab at an intrigue sub-plot with Kevin Kline’s hammy private dick character wandering in and out, but for the most part the likes of Meryl Streep and Woody Harrelson just belt out tunes and reel off risqué jokes, and a good night is had by all. Altman at his best did this kind of thing so naturally, without forcing anything on the viewer. He’ll be missed.
7/10
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