Prairie Home Companion

Like the children of Lake Wobegon, all the participants in this film are “above average,” led by a pair of genial old masters, writer and performer Garrison Keillor and director Robert Altman. Meryl Streep is way above average and makes a delightful pair with Lily Tomlin as the gospel-singing Johnson Sisters. Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly are stupidly but ingratiatingly hilarious as a pair of singing cowboys. Kevin Kline is Guy Noir, private eye become security guard, and the likes of Virginia Madsen, Lindsay Lohan, and Tommy Lee Jones fill in the gaps. Keillor’s regular radio troupe appears as well, and it’s fun to put faces to pleasantly familiar voices. The backstage story is nugatory, but all the performances are enjoyable. Everybody seems to be having a good time, and I did too. This is not Nashville, but I’m the heretical Altman fan who likes this St. Paul version just as much. (2006, dvd, n.) *7* (MC-75.)