Home on the Prairie

While it was nice that they used so many players from the actual cast of A Prairie Home Companion in the movie, it was sort of disconcerting to see them (those folk both aptly and not-so-aptly named as "faces for radio") up against faces and bodies such as Meryl Streep, Linsay Lohan, Kevin Kline, and Virginia Madsen. It may have lent a more realistic and Midwestern flavor to the set (as if being bashed over the head by MS's "dontcha know" accent wasn't more than enough). The movie gently unfolded, with the threads of the story sort of left unpulled together at the end - the story itself was almost vignettes of vignettes, captured by fantastic ensemble work on the part of the impressive cast.

Watching the noisemaking guy's face as he worked (deadpan, the whole time) was hilarious. The "Bad Jokes" song almost killed me and got my seatmate's arm bashed all black and blue when he enjoyed some of the jokes a little too much...