Watching “A Prairie Home Companion” is like a visit with your great great uncle: pleasant enough, rambling, quiet, slow and, if you’re lucky, mercifully short. Robert Altman’s affectionate effort to bring the popular, folksy radio show to film is a gentle snoozer full of talented actors doing a nice job of absolutely nothing. I’m all for moody character studies and whatnot, but when I say nothing happens I am exaggerating the amount of excitement generated.
The premise is that the beloved radio variety hour is going to be closed down and the gang is giving their final performance. Everyone is philosophical about it and takes the situation pretty well, which is a good attitude for real life, but makes for decidedly dull viewing.
So the all-star cast performs cutesy old fashioned songs and a poorly realized angel of death character (Virginia Madsen) wanders around backstage while banter is exchanged and charisma, but little else, is exhibited.
Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep have some wonderful scenes together as singing sisters. Their conversations in their dressing rooms are masterpieces of realism in writing and performance. They should be shown in acting classes. But I’d rather watch “9 to 5.” Or “The Incredible Shrinking Woman” for that matter. But I’ve always been partial to Lily Tomlin.
So if you’re one of Garrison Keillor’s many fans, or if you feel jittery and in need of deep relaxation, you can give “A Prairie Home Companion” a try. It wasn’t bad enough to deserve being denounced, but it wasn’t good enough to recommend. It made such a faint impression as to barely deserve mentioning.
“A Prairie Home Companion” is currently available to rent.
“Thank You for Smoking” succeeds where many satires fail. It is actually smart and funny and draws convincing and recognizable characters, rather than caricatures. Aaron Eckhart’s smarmy good looks serve him well as a slick lobbyist for the tobacco industry. The film’s moral twists come from his attempts to bond with his son over the kind of work he does. Overall, however, the film remains largely unredeemed and most lessons remain safely unlearned.
Satires also tend to dip into the realm of cruelty, which makes them unpleasant and unfunny. “Thank You for Smoking” manages a tone that is sharp and mordant, but does not go too far. Therefore, when attempts are made on Eckhart’s life, you actually care a little. This does not weaken the film’s barbs; it makes them more effective.
With so much available to mock, the filmmakers used restraint and we get to enjoy quality not quantity. But I don’t mean to imply that this film is serious or sensitive. Eckhart eats lunch with his two best friends every day; they are lobbyists for firearms and alcohol and the trio refer to themselves as the M.O.D. squad, for Merchants of Death. Sometimes they argue for bragging rights over whose industry has killed more people.
A supporting cast fills in the corners of this movie with lots of funny stuff and high energy keeps the tone light. This is not an outraged indictment of the political scene or the tobacco industry; it is a witty comedy.
Above all, Eckhart’s character drives the film. This movie is about a man whose lucrative gift for glibness has convinced even himself of the correctness of his course, when all evidence and opinion is to the contrary. The portrait of a guy who describes big tobacco to his son as “the underdog” and may even believe it himself is surprisingly interesting and predictably hilarious.
“Thank You for Smoking” is currently available to rent.
Contact Asia Frey at afrey@lagniappemobile.com.
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