DVD of the Week: A Prairie Home Companion

This charming and bittersweet ensemble dramedy from esteemed director Robert Altman is certainly this week’s most worthwhile rental option. It adapts classic elements of Garrison Keillor’s long running variety radio show of the same name into a cinematic narrative that mixes the typical events of a weekly broadcast with entirely fictitious behind the scenes tragedy and high jinks. Death (in the form of the newly brilliant Virginia Madsen) visits the show during its final broadcast to take the life of one if its cast members. The film addresses the melancholy of losing a loved one (or show) but never becomes overly maudlin. It’s mostly a rambling riff of calamity and fun that features amazing talent like Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, and the recently redeemed Lindsay Lohan in performances that blur the line between on-air improv and character revelation. Kevin Kline also does hysterical work here as Guy Noir, the show’s head of security who’s racing against the clock to try and save the show from the wrath of a corporate big wig known only as Axeman (Tommy Lee Jones). Mortality, frivolity, and musicality collide in this sentimental but never saccharine portrayal of a beaten but undefeated group of performers who seem sadly lost in the modern age of lifeless, flavorless radio programming.