The Bottom Line: ‘Home’ Is Where Lohan’s Heart Lies

Lindsay Lohan’s finally declared her state of independence.

Disney’s go-to gal’s slammed the door shut on the Mouse House to take a trip down the art-house circuit. Her first such offering, director Robert Altman’s rambling though occasionally delightful A Prairie Home Companion, finds her trying to achieve a goal she set herself as an 11-year-old unknown.

“When I grow up, I want to be like Jodie Foster,” she proclaimed in a documentary about The Parent Trap remake.

How ambitious. How noble. How realistic?

Well, Lohan has as much in common with Foster as she doesn’t.

Both spent part their teens toiling for Disney, with Foster originating the role in Freaky Friday that Lohan assumed in the 2003 remake. But Foster didn’t shy away from the seamy side of life, as evidenced by her heartbreaking turn as a child prostitute in Taxi Driver.

Lohan’s steered cleared of R-rated fare, preferring to make spunky comedies for girls her own age. So she’s yet to challenge herself as Foster did with Taxi Driver. Perhaps all the drama Lohan’s faced in her personal life—bulimia, exhaustion, her parents’ divorce–left her reluctant to tackle weightier maspeculatters as an actress. Or maybe she feared alienating her audience.

A Prairie Home Companion arrives at a time when Lohan—who turns 20 on July 2—wants to shatter her teen-queen image. But her first romance, Just My Luck ($14.1 million), will barely surpass the measly $16.5 million earned by arch rival Hilary Duff’s The Perfect Man.

A Prairie Home Companion–which speculates what would happen if the Garrison Keillor-hosted variety show was forced to sign off the airwaves–won’t appeal to anyone younger than the 32-year-old PBS institution. But Lohan never elected to work with Altman to please her fans. This is about demonstrating she can take direction from a maverick taskmaster while holding her own against Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin.

Unfortunately, we still don’t know whether Lohan can. She’s given practically nothing to other than to listen to Streep and Tomlin reminisce. And if it feels like Lohan was shoehorned into the proceedings, that’s because she was. Keillor specially created a role for Lohan when she asked Altman be in the film, Keillor wrote in Premiere.

But A Prairie Home Companion isn’t a one-shot attempt by Lohan to prove her worth. Maybe she’ll steal Bobby (Nov. 22), Emilio Estevez’s ensemble drama set on the night of RFK’s 1968 assassination. More likely, Lohan’s best opportunity to impress us will come with Chapter 27, in which she plays a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman (Jared Leto) days before he guns down the ex-Beatle.

She’s also helping a Speechless Adrien Brody talk to the object of his desire in this Cyrano de Bergerac-tinged romance.

Lohan’s taken a supporting role in Bill—not to be confused with Bobby–which stars Aaron Eckhart as a husband trying to cope with his wife’s infidelity.

Georgia Rule probably represents Lohan return to the mainstream, considering Pretty Woman’s Garry Marshallis directing. But the multigenerational comedy allows Lohan to match wits with Jane Fonda. If A Prairie Home Companion didn’t give Lohan a chance to go head to head with one Oscar winner, Georgia Rule should. And this match up could either be revelatory or Monster-in-Law embarrassing.

The Bottom Line
Love or loathe her, Lohan at least deserves respect for realizing she can’t remake every live-action Disney classic. A Prairie Home Companion won’t alter anyone’s perception of Lohan, but it at least puts her on the right path if she truly wants to find an adult career like Jodie Foster’s. Revealing her independent streak is a smartest move she could make.