Review: A Prairie Home Companion

UK release date: 5th January

The final film from one of Hollywood’s best-loved mavericks, the late Robert Altman, is a gentle, affectionate salute to Garrison Keillor’s equally gentle and affectionate radio show of the same name.

Keillor plays himself, the genial, unflustered host of a long-running live public radio show that is about to be closed down. Ruthless Texan millionaire Tommy Lee Jones has bought the theatre, and it will be demolished after the final performance. The film shows the action on and off stage, although not a lot actually happens and a sub-plot involving a mysterious woman (Virginia Madsen) is just daft.

However, the joy comes from the relaxed interplay between the show’s troupe of regulars and some great country music performances from the likes of Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, Lily Tomlin and John C Reilly. A fine way for Altman to bow out.

Radio Times rating:

****

UK cinema certificate PG
Running time 105mins

Review by John Ferguson

News: John C Reilly

The pug-faced character actor may have made his name with decent acting skills in films like this week’s A Prairie Home Companion, notably in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights and Magnolia, but he seems increasingly to be turning to comedy, as with his recent outing in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

He’s got three more comedies in the works: Quebec, as a grocery store clerk vying with his colleague Seann William Scott for a promotion; Step Brothers, another bit of comedic rivalry with his real-world buddy and Talladega Nights co-star Will Ferrell; and Walk Hard, a spoof of Oscar-winner Walk The Line, in which he’ll star as a singer on the road to music superstardom.

News: Will Ferrell

The former Saturday Night Live star has, with this week’s Stranger Than Fiction, made yet another convincing stab at gaining recognition as one of the most interesting comedy actors currently working in Hollywood, after a series of relatively disappointing turns.

Next year will see just one Ferrell movie, the ice skating comedy Blades of Glory, following two rival Olympic skaters expelled from the games who find a loophole that might just see them able to get back in, while 2008 will see another Ferrell sport-s based outing with the basketball comedy Semi-Pro, in which Ferrell will co-star with Woody Harrelson.

Most promising for Ferrell fans, though, is likely to be Step Brothers – Ferrell co-writing with Talladega Nights and Anchorman director Adam McKay as well as starring in this broad comedy about two spoiled grown-ups, who – naturally – hate each other, who end up as step brothers when their aging parents decide to get hitched. Ferrell’s Talladega Nights co-star John C Reilly will co-star.