Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

A Prairie Home Companion Blu-ray Movie Review

Sponsored by Powdermilk Biscuits.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 30, 2024

As the son of a long-time public radio engineer, yours truly has countless childhood memories of hearing "A Prairie Home Companion" -- especially "News from Lake Wobegon" -- softly coming from any number of speakers in our small home, and especially on long car rides. You might think, then, that such a deep-rooted history would leave me with an osmosis-formed recollection of specific stories or characters from Garrison Keillor's long-running radio program... but really, I just remember it as pillowy sonic comfort food as we traveled home from family outings in the Saturday night darkness. Keillor served as host of the weekly variety show for more than four decades after its inception in 1974, which means there's about as much material in the vault as your average daytime soap opera.

In 2006 (some 10 years before Keillor left), Robert Altman made this eponymous film his final directorial effort, a love letter to the radio show with a screenplay and rare on-screen performance by Keillor playing himself. It's not quite a concert film or a straight recreation of your average episode: A Prairie Home Companion lies somewhere in-between as a meta version of its stubbornly consistent source material that ruminates on joy, love, and loss. Sadly, the imbalance of spotlighted performances and backstage drama fight for attention and routinely rob the film of its momentum, leaving viewers with a slightly neutered and ironically less entertaining version of "the real thing".

The narrative through-line of A Prairie Home Companion concerns its fictional final show, where musical talents like singing sisters Yolanda (Meryl Streep) and Rhonda Johnson (Lily Tomlin), jokey cowboy duo Dusty (Woody Harrelson) and Lefty (John C. Reilly), and others do their schtick for a live audience and those listening at home, who are of course serenaded by the dulcet voice of host "G.K." (Keillor) that ties everything neatly together. With its long-time home of the Fitzgerald Theater soon slated for demolition courtesy of the radio station's parent company and its top executive, known as "the Axeman" (Tommy Lee Jones), all that's left is for the cast, crew, and others including private investigator Guy Noir (Kevin Kline) to accept their fate. Yet a possible intervention arrives with the sudden appearance of a trench coat-clad blonde known only as "the Dangerous Woman" (Virginia Madsen), so perhaps not all hope is lost...

It's a well-meaning but mishandled framing device for what's otherwise a collage of small interactions, occasional dramatic twists, and the predictable chaos of a live show, making the result fitfully entertaining but largely inconsistent. Highlights peek around every corner: a song there, a one-liner there, and course the calm and collected demeanor of Keillor himself, who never disappoints. But where A Prairie Home Companion falls short is the attempt to be something dramatically bigger, with almost all of the ongoing exploits of Guy Noir and especially "the Dangerous Woman" falling mostly flat with precious few exceptions. It manages to tug a heartstring or two along the way and might please a segment of the show's long-time fans... but as a whole, A Prairie Home Companion falls short of potential.

A Prairie Home Companion Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Reportedly shot on 1080p digital video with an intentionally "thick" appearance, A Prairie Home Companion obviously bests Warner Bros.' 2006 DVD counterpart but doesn't approach the heights of typical Warner Archive Blu-rays. This 1080p transfer was likely taken from similar elements to that older disc release and certainly improves in the areas of base-level fine detail, black levels, color representation, and of course encoding, despite the bulk of this film running at a rather modest but not necessarily detrimental ~25Mpbs bit rate. It's difficult to accurately judge certain anomalies such as stray amounts of posterization and banding as they may very well be part of the source material (whether or not it's meant to evoke a production shot on the fly), but A Prairie Home Companion's intentionally warm color palette and overall cozy atmosphere nonetheless looks about as good as possible here so I'll call it a win.

A Prairie Home Companion Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is an inarguable winner, of course, with the intended live stage performance atmosphere accurately rendered during musical numbers. Backstage moments are just as interesting for different reasons, with occasionally overlapping conversations and other goings-on adding their own layers of sonic support. Don't get me wrong: this isn't an overwhelmingly active mix but it feels pleasingly authentic with the professional sheen of seasoned veterans at its disposal. Die-hard fans will enjoying turning this one up a few decibels.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature, but not the extras listed below.

A Prairie Home Companion Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art. Extras are all ported from the DVD edition.

• Onstage at the Fitzgerald: A Musical Companion (35:15) - This mid-length collection of raw footage includes rehearsals and unedited clips of the finished musical performances heard during the main feature, as well as similarly full versions of several faux commercials smoothly performed by Garrison Keillor.

• Come Play With Us: A Feature Companion (49:16) - This more traditional behind-the-scenes piece features additional backstage footage as well as candid interviews with Keillor, Altman, and several performers and actors, all of whom speak about the radio show's history, legacy, and of course the inherent challenges in adapting that kind of material into a full-length drama. This being a product of the late DVD era which hasn't been handled with care, it's quite rough-looking and unfortunately suffers from noticeable interlacing issues at times.

• Soundtrack Preview (36:10) - The surprisingly lengthy extras continue with this piece, which is actually just more or less a marathon clip of all the musical performances featured in the film.

• Audio Commentary - A full-length conversation that features late director Robert Altman and actor Kevin Kline, which holds up decently well as a warm and entertaining commentary track that serves up some good insight into the filmmaking process and adaptation. This isn't exactly the most in-depth and honest assessment of the finished product and could have used an alternate perspective, but fans should certainly enjoy it.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:18) - This vintage promotional piece can also be seen here.

• Song Selection - Instant access to 14 songs and key musical cues from the main feature, including "Slow Days of Summer", "My Minnesota Road", "Goodbye to My Mama", "Bad Jokes", "Frankie & Johnny", and more.

A Prairie Home Companion Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As much as A Prairie Home Companion wants to be a spiritual send-off to the long-running radio show's legacy, Robert Altman's final film falls short of its source material. Most of the inserted drama is rendered inert and too much focus is placed on the celebrity cast, leaving only the raw musical compositions and "hosting" by Garrison Keillor to carry the weight. They do to an extent, but there's quite simply not enough great material here to justify a feature-length film, meaning that any number of "APHC" broadcasts will be time better spent. That said, die-hard fans may warm up to the film's sentiments and Warner Archive's Blu-ray treatment is nothing if not admirable, serving up rock-solid A/V merits and a nice pile of DVD-era extras. This one isn't blind buy material, but established fans will certainly love it.