Slowly, we are given a beating of character back-story and musical performances, while an angel in a trench coat makes her way through the company's lives during their last performance together.

The cast was the movie's best feature. Meryl Streep (Postcards from the Edge) and Lily Tomlin (Short Cuts) were great as the sisters. Woody Harrelson (People Vs Larry Flynt) and John C. Reilly (Chicago) were also very good as the cow poking' crooners. The best performance of the movie was Kevin Kline (Life as a House) as the production's security manager Guy Noir.

The Guy Noir character was where the movie's through-line began. The picture begins basking in several film noir aspects, like the poetic voice over, the wet streets and a predominant saxophone on the soundtrack. The satirical set up continued with the Noir character and gave Kline plenty of opportunity to grab legitimate laughs.

The picture was very well constructed by director Robert Altman (Gosford Park) who was brilliant in the use of the space. His concept for the picture, although very lofty, was well delivered and as always gave his cast the room to create their scenes and make them their own.

"A Prairie Home Companion" movie, much like the actual show I hear, if wall-to-wall music, mostly gospel country. The performances were very well done and Altman used them in a real time manner. We, the viewer, were always hearing every minute of the broadcast in the background if not right on stage.

So, if you have a problem listening to music 70 percent of the time or watching the performances, then you may not like this picture. At least the music has a reason for being in the movie, rather than an actual musical where people break into song for no reason.

Overall, I think "A Prairie Home Companion" is a bit surreal and a thinker and shows once again how originality in cinemas for 2006 can so far (June 20, 2006) only be found in independent releases.