Movie Review

Directed by: Robert Altman; Starring: Meryl Streep (Rhonda Johnson), Lily Tomlin (Yolanda Johnson) , Lindsey Lohan (Lola Johnson) Woody Harrelson (Dusty), Tim Russell (Lefty), Garrison Keiller (himself) Tommy Lee Jones (Mr. Cross), Kevin Kline (Guy Noir),Virginia Madsen, (Lois Peterson, the angel), 146 Minutes, 2006.

This all star cast will have you tapping your toes to the music, busting a gut laughing and dabbing your eyes at the pathos. It is grounded in the actual radio program of the same name that made Keiller famous. The story takes place on the supposed last night of the program. After 30 years on the air the original founding family to a large communications corporation in Texas has sold the radio station. Mr. Cross is coming that night to close the theatre. The theme is truly apocalyptic since the show goes on in the foreground but we are allowed to see and interpret what goes on behind the curtain in the lives and loves of the players. They are waiting for the messenger to show up and deliver the bad news, which they already know. In the mean time, the words of the singers and story tellers in front of the curtain reveal to us what is really going on, the narrative of their lives off stage.

Throughout the story an angel appears in a white trench coat. Her job is to "deliver people to God", but she also brings comfort to those who are sad and bereaved. While she helps take one old performer, her continuing presence is a reminder that it can happen any time to anyone. It turns out that she was Lois Peterson, former girlfriend of Keiller but killed in a car accident while laughing at one of his jokes.

Mr Cross leaves the theatre resolved to close the show but is killed on his way to the airport. We are lead to hope for a miracle that he will thus not be able to close the theatre and the show will go on. But it makes no difference. The show closes the next day anyway and people move on.

There are several ways to understand the story of the Gospel as told in the New Testament and there are several stories we can tell in order to make sense of the ambiguities, paradoxes and puzzles of our lives. We usually prefer a certain way of telling the story of our lives over other ways and it is not difficult to see that one's relationship to God can be Comic, Romantic, Tragic or Ironic. If Comic, the story turns on our misunderstanding of our situation but when we "get right with God" that misunderstanding is resolved and a happy ending results. If Romantic we can easily see life as a journey with many pitfalls that is finally resolved when one discovers the True Way, true community, the true God, Truth Itself. If Tragic, one can see that continually contesting with God and testing Fate will result in one's being ground under unless one yields to God and becomes obedient, even unto death. However, the Ironic view of the Christian Life is the more difficult to see and the more bracing to live. Here, there are no guaranteed happy endings. In an Ironic story, reputedly worthy persons come to naught and what seem to be good plans go flat. Transcendent forces do not justify life and so one embraces one's brothers and sisters in community and camaraderie. There are no sure things but we have each other.

Keiller is an Ironic Christ Figure in the midst of an anxious community waiting for a miracle, waiting for the corporate juggernaut to roll over them, waiting for the bad news to be proved false. "Aren't you going to make a speech? It's the last show!" asks Rhonda. "We're always on the last show", replies Keiller.

There is lots of traditional religious sentiment expressed in song and story, but the young ingénue, Lola, who got her Big Chance at a singing career on the last show chooses to go into Financial Management; the old friends begin to plan a come back and the angel hangs around the door of the diner ready to deliver someone new, to God.