I love this movie so much

Sorry, this movie sucks

So much average

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is a charming wonderful film about the last night of a radio show before it goes off the air forever. There is a sort of sweet sadness and memory of older times that hangs over the performers, as they reminisce about their lives. The camera weaves back and forth, letting the actors do their thing, without any chopping editing. The radio show is country/folk music themed, so there is plenty of good music to be had. Much of the inner workings of the show are revealed. We get to know the characters almost too well, with all their individual quirks and personalities. There's Guy Noir, who seems like he's from a Film Noir. And the Johnson sisters with all their emotional baggage. There's Dusty and Lefty, two cowboys; hillbillies and proud of it. You get the picture. All their interactions are golden. Yet, underneath the lively music and warmhearted people, there is an undercurrent of death. Because that's what the movie's about, when it comes right down to it. It's about things coming to a close. There are so many references to death in the movie. It shows how large a role death plays in these people's lives. This is personified in an angel who wanders around the proceedings. Even the young people are affected: Lindsay Lohan's character writes poems about suicide. So how can a film with such strong and serious themes be also so joyous and uplifting? That's the magic of it. It was Robert Altman's last film; he died shortly after the making of it, and he probably knew that he would. I think this is his parting gift to us. We should cherish this gem.

A Prairie Home Companion (2006): Dir: Robert Altman / Cast: Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, Lily Tomlin: Send off to old theatre radio where the voices heard seem personal. It is the final night before the radio theatre show is shut down and the screenplay sways between musical numbers and setup scenes where performers ready for their act. Kevin Kline is hilarious as a private investigator down on his luck. He observes everything and reflects upon the history of the event. Meryl Streep is excellent as she voices her hurt over a past relationship with the host. She and Lily Tomlin will perform a perfect pitch number before they farewell the place. Her daughter is played by Lindsay Lohan stealing scenes with her obsession of poetry and suicide. She also delivers an on stage performance that elevate her beyond what she has done before. Biggest weakness is Virginia Madsen as an angel who appears. and her subplot is totally unnecessary. Lily Tomlin plays Streep's sister and together they make up a country music act. It is great to see these two veterans share the screen as well as the stage. Director Robert Altman proves to know theatre radio and backs it up with superb art direction. Altman is a celebrated director whose films are often ensemble and different as with Gosford Park or Nashville. This film regards the dusk of years of love and the dawn of new beginnings. Score: 8 ½ / 10

Harrelson, Kline, Streep, Jones, Madsen, Tomlin… great names, each of them would make me consider or even force me to watch any movie. And there is Altman himself.Well, if it were not for Altman, probably this movie would stay within USA borders as a cult movie that nobody of us "foreigners" would hear about, except in those stars' filmographies. We would put it in a ladder with other strictly USA projects like Saturday Night Live and similar and mostly forget about it, while Americans would praise it as a highlight of their culture – and I guess they would have all rights to do it: we, across the ocean, simply can't completely understand and recognize it, can't feel it and can't develop enough emotions for it.And this is a deeply emotional movie, unlike most Altman's works that open us a part of the reality, show it, analyze, but usually from the point of a spectator, a chronicler. Here Altman includes even supernatural elements, very unlikely for his other works. But in this movie he expresses sentimental feelings for the subject of the movie which, as usual, is not one or few human destinies, but some community, place, event, society etc. The trouble for non-Americans is that we can understand Nashville because, no matter how deeply American their elections are, we are well informed about them, either by daily news or by so many movies that give us really wide perspective (and also all of us have some elections traditions, events and affairs in our own countries), and besides Altman doesn't expect us to feel something about Nashville; but we can't feel Prairie Home Companion because it is too different from our experiences, and Altman tries to induce emotions in his audience, emotions that you can have only for something that has already touched you in childhood or some other sensitive phase of your life.For me personally, this movie is another prove of Altman's genius, because I had no previous emotions for the subject and he still managed to give me breathless scenes and a create a mood that I felt even more than in many of his movies that corresponded better with my knowledge, feelings, culture. But I am a person that also understands and appreciates words of Queen's Radio Ga-Ga better than the music. I'm glad that I've seen this movie, but I won't repeat it, and I'm not sure to whom could I suggest it if living outside USA (except, of course, Altman's fans, but they've probably watched it already).

What a weird, wonderful and charming movie that could only have been made by the great Robert Altman, who takes a stage full of quirky singers and radio stars and gives us a timeless look at the inner workings on the final production of one of the staples of radio programming, the country variety show A Prairie Home Companion.With a screenplay by the host himself, Garrison Keillor, Altman charges head-on into this array of characters, including a strange Phillip Marlowe-type noir character (Kevin Kline) and a mysterious woman in white roaming throughout the final performance (Virginia Madsen). Yet, the real stars of this movie are the recognizable actors such as Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan and the immortal Meryl Streep as various singers who come to embody everything that is loved and cherished about this program. At times, the narrative seems to pause itself and make time for characters that have little or no significance to the larger story, which is the sadness and nostalgic memories of a show much celebrated in the past but now at the end of its run.Yet, what is remembered most from this movie is the great acting by the huge cast and a number of memorable songs, mostly from Streep, Tomlin, Harrelson and Reilly. All in all, a fine ending to a very original and often bumpy road in the career of Robert Altman.