Opening

87% Star Trek Into Darkness May 16
24% Erased May 17
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44% The English Teacher May 17
42% Black Rock May 17
77% Pieta May 17
—— Populaire May 17
21% 33 Postcards May 17

Top Box Office

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56% Oblivion $4.1M
69% The Croods $3.6M
98% Mud $2.5M
8% The Big Wedding $2.5M
60% Oz the Great and Powerful $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
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A Prairie Home Companion Play Trailer

A Prairie Home Companion (2006)

tomatometer

81

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 189
Fresh: 153 | Rotten: 36

The final film by the great Robert Altman, A Prairie Home Companion, the big screen adaptation of Garrison Keillor's radio broadcast, showcases plenty of the director's strengths: it's got a gigantic cast and plenty of quirky acting and dialogue. Much like the radio show, Companion features clever jokes, rousing tunes, and endearing characters. With strong work from Lindsay Lohan, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Tommy Lee Jones, it's a worthy swan song from one of the cinema's best.

74

Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 43
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 11

The final film by the great Robert Altman, A Prairie Home Companion, the big screen adaptation of Garrison Keillor's radio broadcast, showcases plenty of the director's strengths: it's got a gigantic cast and plenty of quirky acting and dialogue. Much like the radio show, Companion features clever jokes, rousing tunes, and endearing characters. With strong work from Lindsay Lohan, Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Tommy Lee Jones, it's a worthy swan song from one of the cinema's best.

audience

49

liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 83,473

My Rating

Movie Info

Acclaimed filmmaker Robert Altman (Short Cuts, Nashville) brings National Public Radio stalwart Garrison Keillor's long-running radio program to vivid life on the big screen in a intricately woven backstage fable centering on the final performance of a fictionalized version of his variety show. As if the result of some strange mass-media fluke, the popular radio program A Prairie Home Companion somehow managed to survive the television age to entertain its audience every Saturday night from the

PG-13,

Comedy

Garrison Keillor

Nov 9, 2004

$20.2M

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Cast

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All Critics (197) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (160) | Rotten (37) | DVD (21)

The movie, redolent of death, is a sort of wake, but a funny-sad one, teeming with music, corny jokes, and an ensemble of gifted performers who appear to be having an obscene amount of fun in one another's company.

January 6, 2007 Full Review Source: New York Magazine
New York Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Just lovely, and a magnificently enjoyable coda to an extraordinary career.

January 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It sparkles with a magic all its own as an engagingly performed piece of Midwestern whimsy and stoicism. Mr. Altman's flair for ensemble spectacle and seamless improvisation in the midst of utter chaos is as apparent as ever.

June 14, 2006 Full Review Source: New York Observer
New York Observer
Top Critic IconTop Critic

What a lovely film this is, so gentle and whimsical, so simple and profound.

June 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comments (4)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Either you like that brand of music and humor or you don't. I am not a huge fan.

June 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Pass the Powdermilk Biscuits, slice the pie and serve the corn.

June 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

...for the uninitiated, the story meanders far too much to resonate, and Altman's relentless focus on mortality dampens the show's amiable charm.

April 20, 2011 Full Review Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Metro Times (Detroit, MI)

It looks and feels like an Altman film, but one made completely on a pointless lark.

August 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer
Cinema Writer

Life is fleeting, but A Prairie Home Companion, slender and perfect, proves that art endures as a reminder of it

August 30, 2009 Full Review Source: CinePassion
CinePassion

It is obviously the film of a master and certainly feels like a swan song.

November 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Bright Lights Film Journal
Bright Lights Film Journal

Swan songs are seldom as sweet or melodic as A Prairie Home Companion.

August 13, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

The movie is a shaggy-dog trifle, but it's a sweet and lovely one.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

Quirky and provocative film about relationships.

July 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media

Altman's star-studded cast is natural and energetic -- with the exception of a surprisingly detached Keillor -- and the Hollywood folks mingle easily, in character, among the real show's performers, a technique Altman perfected in Nashville.

June 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine
Paste Magazine

...a lovely and bittersweet fable about morality, the fleetingness of fame, drawing strength from the past and finding the inevitable beauty in the darkest of situations.

February 28, 2008 Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com
BrandonFibbs.com

In its neatest trick of all, the script circumvents any criticism of its lack of timeliness by very literally casting the proceedings under a shadow of death.

February 1, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinematical
Cinematical

uvid u djelo velikog majstora

September 28, 2007 Full Review Source: Index.hr

Alternatively wistful and satirical, Prairie isn't an Altman classic, but it's a fine time.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound
Big Picture Big Sound

This adaptation is highly-recommended for loyal devotees of the long-running radio show as a cinematic capstone on Keillor's magnificent career.

June 16, 2007 Full Review Source: Richmond Post
Richmond Post

Audience Reviews for A Prairie Home Companion

Found some of it funny and charming but given the talents involved I might have hoped for more. Some of the improvs seemed clumsy and I just didn't buy some of the characters. A little too much music?
March 29, 2007
brooklynspo

Super Reviewer

Altman's final film is a touching meditation on death and changing of the times. With a great ensemble, Altman delivers his swan song.
October 27, 2011
Graham Jones

Super Reviewer

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Latest News on A Prairie Home Companion

June 7, 2007:
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The stars come marching out to do battle with the pirates for the number one spot this weekend.

November 28, 2006:
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November 21, 2006:
Auteur Robert Altman Passes Away at 81
Robert Altman, the esteemed and venerable director of "M*A*S*H," "Nashville,"...

Foreign Titles

  • A Prairie Home Companion: Last Radio Show (DE)
  • Ciné Pôle Sud (The Last Show) (FR)
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