THE LAKE EFFECT
I suspect there are a number of reasons movies are made”to inspire, to entertain, or to make money, to name a few. Summer finds The Da Vinci Code and A Prairie Home Companion at the Lake Theatre. Millions of people have read the book or listened to Garrison Keillor’s radio show, so I’m pretty sure the financial motive looms large for the two movies.
And that, of course, is the problem. The book, The Da Vinci Code, according to my English major friends, may be poorly written with weak characters, but it has a roller-coaster of a plot. The film is mostly faithful to the book. So if you’ve read the book, you don’t really need to see the movie. The pursuit of the Holy Grail, the descendents of Jesus, the Knights Templar, Opus Dei and the “true” story of Mary Magdalene are all there in their convoluted entertaining glory. Since the plot is the movie, the actors aren’t all that important, which is just as well because Tom Hanks gives, for him, a rather uninspired performance. Ian McKellen is good as Sir Leigh Treibing, the mastermind behind keeping the secret. My personal favorite was Paul Bettany as the albino, Silas (or is it the “pigment-challenged Silas” in the interest of political correctness?). He punishes himself in some kind of chastity ritual by strapping barbed wire to his thigh, which of course begs the question of what he does for Lent. This movie, you may know, is controversial in Christian circles because it presents the preposterous proposition that Mary Magdalene had Jesus’ baby. Somehow that seems less preposterous than the proposition that Jesus was the result of a virgin birth, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. I’m guessing Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ is the preferred movie for those folks.
I feel bad about not really liking A Prairie Home Companion. Robert Altman does his free-flowing ensemble gig again”beautifully. The setting is the venerable Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, Minn. Tommy Lee Jones (“The Axeman”) has come to close the theater because some new owners want to build a parking lot. So we get to watch the last radio show performed before a live audience. Woody Harrelson (“Dusty”) and John C. Reilly (“Lefty”) perform cowboy songs and tell some of the worst jokes perhaps ever told in cinema history. The Johnson sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin sing your old-time favorites, and Kevin Kline wanders around as “Detective Guy Noir.” There is a sub-plot involving Virginia Madsen as an angel looking for people whose time has come. All of it is held together by the host, Garrison Keillor, playing himself. All of the actors are great with authentic performances.
This is the first movie I have ever attended in my 57 years where the average age of the audience was older than I am. Aside from the snail’s pace that it took to empty the theater, I didn’t like being reminded of my advancing years, which is maybe why I liked X-Men Three better. Some of my friends are huge fans of A Prairie Home Companion on the radio. I swear I have listened and tried to like it, but the combination of old-time songs; stupid, dated commercials; and quasi-witty repartee reminds me of The Lennon Sisters, Queen for a Day, and the horrible Lawrence Welk Show. I know that it’s supposed to evoke a kindler, gentler time when kids could go anywhere on their bikes, and the whole family went to an ice cream social, but, please, just a little sarcasm, a little irony, or even just a touch of mean-spiritedness would be appreciated.
Suffice it to say, if you
like the radio show, you’ll
love the movie, and I’m sorry for the mean things that I’ve said about A Prairie Home Companion.
