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Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly, as Dusty and Lefty, are the source of the film's 'risque humor'

The movie is as belligerently Midwestern as the radio show. ("We come from people who brought us up to believe that life is a struggle," GK intones in an early scene, "and if you should feel really happy, be patient: this will pass.") It is also willfully corny and old-fashioned and somehow hip in its intentional un-hipness, all of which lends the movie much of its charm. There are times, however, when the film's tone seems uneven. I found myself more embarrassed than intrigued or charmed by the hokiness of Madsen's angel, a fault more of the script than the acting. (Perhaps Keillor got the inspiration for a celestial presence from his screenplay co-writer Ken LaZebnik, who was a writer and co-producer for the television series Touched By An Angel.) And, despite the undisputed comic genius of Kevin Kline, I found Guy Noir's scenery chewing an over-the-top distraction against the more understated vibe of the rest of the movie.

The unevenness in tone in A Prairie Home Companion sometimes plays out into larger problems with thematic inconsistencies. There is both great humor and genuine pathos in the film, much to its credit, but there are moments where it is hard to determine whether a particular statement or development is meant to be sarcastic or profound. Depending on the viewer's sensibilities, such ambiguity can be a great strength or weakness; I found it more confusing than engaging. Take, for example, the film's treatment of death. Altman and most of the cast have claimed in interviews that A Prairie Home Companion is essentially a movie about death, whereas Keillor insists that any death in the movie is "comic death" and is not the film's overriding theme. Such differences in thematic intent seem to dilute rather than nuance the film.

I found myself vaguely disappointed in the film's treatment of faith, and I suspect other Christian viewers may be as well. On the surface, this disappointment can be attributed to the absence of any of Keillor's well-loved Lake Wobegon stories or characters, which for many of his fans are the epicenter of his work. Fortunately, Keillor is reportedly saving his Norwegian Lutherans for a future Lake Wobegon movie. But there is a curious schism in this film between all the great gospel lyrics sung and the lives of the characters who sing them. Of course, not every gospel singer is going to live the faith she describes, but no one in A Prairie Home Companion seems to look to a spiritual center for hope, comfort, moral direction or general guidance. The only consistently expressed faith viewpoint is that of the angel, and she's pointedly disconnected from the hustle and bustle of life in the theater.

Fans of Altman's naturalistic style and admirers of Keillor's wit will find plenty to love in A Prairie Home Companion. Those of us who were hoping for a deeper or more expressed spiritual center will be consoled by a bounty of great gospel music and the promise of a future Woebegon film. Meanwhile, there is something undeniably soul-stirring about watching a great cast engage themselves whole-heartedly in an immensely creative process, regardless of whether the Source of all that creativity is acknowledged.

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