‘For Your Consideration’: An O.K. film from Christopher Guest

Wed, 11/22/2006 - 3:44pm
By: Michael Boylan

If you don’t know the pure joy that comes from watching, and re-watching, films like “Waiting for Guffman,” “Best in Show,” or “A Mighty Wind,” you may find the film “For Your Consideration” to be great fun. You’d only be half correct. The film is fun, but it is far from great.

The story follows the cast and crew of a small film entitled “Home for Purim,” and when an aging actress in the film inspires some award buzz on a blog, things, mainly egos, start to go out of control. For instance, more cast members start to get mentions on various blogs and morning shows start to feature these low level actors, digging deep into their careers. The story starts to focus less on “Home for Purim,” and more on what “Home for Purim” could lead to.

The cast features Catherine O’Hara, who, as always, (at least in the Guest oeuvre) is outstanding. She actually does deserve Oscar buzz for her role as an actress who has a passion for the craft and gradually believes that she might finally earn some recognition. Joining her in “Home for Purim” are the immensely talented Harry Shearer and Parker Posey. Both of them are in top form, as always, but the problems in the film lie on the periphery.

Eugene Levy, who has practically been the star of the show in the previous Guest films, brings nothing new to the sleazy agent character (you’d swear you have seen hundreds of people play the same character before) and Guest criminally underuses himself in the film. Once again he disappears into his character, the director of “Home for Purim,” but in this movie he doesn’t elevate many of the scenes he is in. The rest of the cast is both hit and miss. Fred Willard has some great moments with Jane Lynch as hosts of an entertainment television show, but his scenes at the end of the film completely miss the mark, and while Jennifer Coolidge and John Michael Higgins are both good in their roles as producer and publicity head, they aren’t hilarious and earlier films show how all of these actors can be very funny.

“For Your Consideration” is something that may or may not play locally, at least for awhile. It is definitely not worth the drive, though it is very worthy of a second viewing, which may show that this film is funnier than I first believed.

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