'A Prairie Home Companion'

Robert Altman is one of the most acclaimed directors in Hollywood. He's been directing since 1951 and has filmed pretty much anything you can imagine. So when Garrison Keillor came along with a script for turning his radio show into a movie, A Prairie Home Companion was born. Add in a big-name cast and you've got a decent summer movie.

Some screenplays feature a movie within a movie, but it's rare that you find a live radio show within a movie. The situation gets even more surreal when the live radio show within the movie is based on, but not exactly, an actual successful program with the host of that real world program playing a loose variation on himself. From page one, Robert Altman and Garrison Keillor's acclaimed A Prairie Home Companion is certainly unlike anything else you're likely to find in theaters this summer. No blue tights or snakes on planes in this one.

Master director Robert Altman's latest ensemble of Woody Harrelson, Lindsay Lohan, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly, and Virginia Madsen gathers to tell the story of the final night of a live radio program. Garrison Keillor and Altman use the stage to try and build a film on the same wavelength as the popular radio program, full of quirky music, old-fashioned humor, bizarre occurrences, and even a bit of the supernatural.

About.com asked Lindsay Lohan if she ever listened to the radio show. "I wasn't aware of exactly what it was. I spoke to my grandmother about it and she kind of informed me what it was about. The movie was coming together, and then I heard Meryl Streep's name, then I heard Michelle Pfeiffer at one point, and then it finally just came together one day. They said, 'Okay, we're making the movie, and they want you to be Meryl Streep's daughter in it."

As for Meryl Streep's singing in A Prairie Home Companion, Streep told About.com, "didn't prepare too much. We just had like three days to get ready and I like to sing. It's just really fun to sing and I don't get to much."

Filmed entirely on set in St. Paul, Minnesota, The Chicago Tribune notes that "To the extent all Altman films are about biological or makeshift clans muddling through while the band plays on, this one's an Altman film up and down, even though it's a Garrison Keillor project up, down and sideways." The writing provides an excellent place for the talents of Harrelson, Lohan, Streep and others to perform.

Garrison Keillor should be praised for what he accomplishes, blending his down-home writing style with Robert Altman's almost-improvisational, free-flowing ensemble feel. They seem like a perfect match and there's not a moment in A Prairie Home Companion where it feels any member of the team - from Robert Altman's direction to Garrison Keillor's writing to the ensemble's acting - aren't doing exactly what they should be. This is not a project where anyone of these talented people "drop the ball."

The only question will be if you care about the ball and where it's going in the first place.

[Additional Sources: Chicago Tribune, About.com]