A Prairie Home Letdown

On those unfortuitous occasions when I find myself at work on a Saturday, plugging away well past Morning Edition on NPR, I'm often greeted next by A Prairie Home Companion. You know, that quirky old-time radio show broadcast live from St. Paul, Minnesota. I can't say with any honesty that I actually enjoy the radio show. I listen for awhile with a strange, maybe strained, curiosity before I inevitably turn off the radio and plug in my iPod. However, recently while taking in another movie, I caught the trailer for the A Prairie Home Companion movie - a movie jam-packed with not just stars, but even a few legends...Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, and Lindsay Lohan (??). And let's not forget the insanely talented and seemingly-invisible-but-in-every-movie-if-you-look-close-enough John C. Reily. Despite the abundance of talent and the swinging country folk music played up in the trailer, the movie itself fell short. Within the first few minutes, I knew I was in trouble. The movie teemed with dialogue but was devoid of any decipherable plot. Not even the crazy antics of Woody Harrelson and John C. Reily as Lefty and Dusty, the irreverant singing cowboys, could pull this movie out of the dumps. I was disappointed, but I should have known.

It was almost worth the nine bucks, however, to catch the previews for the upcoming releases. The first was Marie Antoinette, directed by Sophia Coppola (the woman who wrote and directed one of my very favorite movies Lost in Translation...and who, as Dan recently stated, nearly single-handedly ruined Godfather Part III with her horrible acting skills). This movie is a fresh, hip and apparently intimate take on the youth of Marie Antoinette as she grew up at Versailles. The cast includes Kirsten Dunst (she's come a long way from Bring It On) and Jason Schwartzman (I Heart Huckabees). Coppola's a talented chick, so I'm sure the story plus soundtrack will live up to the trailer, but I'm most looking forward to watching the beauty of Versailles transformed from the museum it is today to the living, breathing estate it once was. Can't wait.

The second movie, and the movie of the summer I am most eagerly awaiting, is Little Miss Sunshine. Greg Kinear, Steve Carell and Toni Collette. I love movies about journeys, literal and figurative. This movie has them both, along with what appears to be many laughs, family dramas, and magical moments of poignancy. Watch the trailer. I can say no more.