For Your Consideration (2006)

The thing most Christopher Guest movies have going for them is their humanity. I always could believe the universe the characters were operating in, and their realism (see the dog owners in Best in Show or the small town citizens of Waiting for Guffman). That humanity transcended the satire and made the movies both hysterical and moving. FYC completely lost the humanity that drives these films. Almost all of the characters were not believable. In this instance Guest's improvisational technique failed him as the actors were all over the top, playing too much to the satire. Only two actors seemed in touch with their characters - Parker Posey (who we really saw too little of to understand her) and the great Catherine O'Hara, who sold both the aging actor she was portraying and the Jewish mother in the film within the film.

Fmovies: Guest seems to be pushing the envelope with Hollywood in this feature, but it isn't funny – it is random, chaotic, and emotional when it should not be. Being a fan of Guest's earlier work, I was initially excited about this outing, but upon viewing it just didn't gel together – emotionally or passionately like Guests other work. This seemed like Guest made a film to spoof the industry, but instead created a dismal look at how comedy can self destruct, even with your regulars trying to make us laugh.

Guest announced in 2005 that he would stop making the "mockumentary" because he thought they were not funny any longer. Hoping to see bigger and braver things from this pioneering director, I hoped "For Your Consideration" would be a fresh chapter in his repertoire of films, but alas, it was nothing of the sort. To begin, the characters seemed stale and uncharismatic. As a "mockumentary", the audience may have had the opportunity to see these actors consume their roles, to build unknown back stories, or to challenge themselves to take their character to the limit, but it never happened as a full-feature film. This was a regular comedy that fruitfully never picked up speed, never pushed the limit, and tried to use similar Guest techniques that would have only worked as a mockumentary. It began to implode with the characters, since we couldn't see them talking directly to us, we had to follow their moves – watch them as they failed, and attempted to make us laugh with their irregularities. Again, what would typically make us laugh in a mockumentary-styled film failed at this level. To demonstrate the error, let's begin with Catherine O'Hara. In Guest's work, she is typically a staple of comedy. Her portrayal of Mickey Crabbe in "A Might Wind" was phenomenal, but in this film it seemed forced, unfunny, and catastrophic. From the opening scene, O'Hara never really defines her character. Is she pushing for freedom, is she ignorant to the truth, or is she trying to fit within the Hollywood scene? Valid questions that never quite get off the ground as we are bombarded with more and more "guest" characters that push this little film into non-existence. Harry Shearer is another example, typically he is genuine in his roles for Guest, but in this feature he just felt stale. He wasn't trying to be funny, nor did he push any level of comedy. The entire hot dog bit was cliché, as was Eugene Levy's performance as his agent. I think that is where problems occurred in this film – there wasn't anything original about Guest's characters in this film, and I think the actors knew it. Fred Willard was the only humorous element to this film – giving us the exact same performance as he did in "Best in Show". This may not have been a mockumentary, but it would have been a mockumentary that would have saved this little feature.

Guest had trouble behind the camera with this film. His camera work seemed staged and oblique. There was no questioning scene that pushed the limit or forced us to see Guest in a new light. He teased the audience, giving us hopes that midway through this film he would transform it into a mockumentary, but alas it never happened. The stages were set, but nothing happened. I couldn't tell if it was the actors that weren't as funny, or Guest's vision was just weak. As a viewer, you find yourself standing outside of this film. You know what Guest's potential can be, yet when you watch this you know

Sooner or later, it was bound to happen. In an impressive string of wonderful mockumentary farces over the past few years, guiding lights Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy, and their brilliant comedic acting ensemble, have joyfully savaged the self-important cultural "worlds" of small town amateur theater ("Waiting for Guffman"), dog shows ("Best in Show") and folk music ("A Mighty Wind").

But a winning formula can't go on forever unchanged, nor should we expect it to. Inevitably, the group have hit a bump in the road with their latest film, "For Your Consideration," a send-up of Hollywood movie making and the assorted vanities of movie makers. Not that it's bad. But compared to those earlier works, it isn't inspired; it doesn't grab you with its efforts to lampoon; and the performances of the actors - always uniformly of a high caliber in most of their movies – is highly variable in this new movie. Perhaps the theme hits too close to home: it's hard to gain the distance necessary to properly ridicule your own ethos, your own cultural world. Or maybe it's just that the recipe Guest and Levy have used to such delightful advantage has just gotten old, for viewers and for Guest's company.

The plot, for what it's worth, concerns a film within a film: the making of a new movie, the ethnically freighted "Home for Purim," which is later rewritten and retitled "Home for Thanksgiving" to broaden its commercial box office appeal. All the stereotypes one expects are on hand: the avaricious executive producers; the harried director; the screenwriters, pained by the incremental decimation of their work; the aging stars in decline; the young up and comings; the vain chase after that holiest of grails: an Oscar, the hangers on – the parasitic, disingenuous talent agent, talk show hosts, film critics and entertainment reporters. They're all here.

Parker Posey (young actress possibly on the way up), Catherine O'Hara ((veteran actress on the way out), Jennifer Coolidge (ditzy producer), and Eugene Levy (actors' agent) provide decent turns but none of these superb talents gives a truly inspired performance here. Harry Shearer is better as a long-suffering actor who is glad enough just to star in a feature film after years of making commercials, Oscar or no Oscar. But the comedic scene stealers in this movie are three pairs of actors who play off each other to wonderful effect: Fred Willard and Jane Lynch as a TV entertainment reporting duo, Bob Balaban and Michael McKean as the beleaguered screenwriters, and Don Lake and Michael Hitchcock as Siskel-Ebert style TV critics. There are several competent cameo contributors as well, the best of whom is Carrie Aizley, a movie journalist.

This is decent fare, but I think Guest and Levy need to re-imagine their formula for successful farce. I never thought the day would come when I would regard a comedy written by David Mamet as superior to work by Guest & Levy, but here's a tip: if you want to see a good send-up of movie making, try Mamet's 2000 film, "State and Main." My grades: 6.5/10 (low B) (Seen on 11/15/06)

For Your Consideration fmovies. "Waiting for Guffman" was a little bit of genius. "Best in Show" and "Mighty Wind" expanded on the same concept: focusing on a sub-culture of people who take their little world entirely too seriously. Unfortunately, "For Your Consideration" lacks the subtle satire of Guest's recent efforts.

The beauty of the previous films was the bubble-world of the cast. The assumption of the viewer is, outside this microcosm, exists the "real world." That illusion is broken in "Consideration," with its all-too-broad send up of "Entertainment Tonight," "Wake Up L.A." and similar shows. It would have been funnier if the Oscar buzz was a complete construct WITHIN the set of "Purim", and then later, the realization there was no Oscar buzz at all.

The humor wasn't as sharp as previous efforts. For example, the handful of characters that were unfamiliar with the internet ... that didn't ring true. Worst of all, there's a cruelty toward the characters in "For Your Consideration" that didn't sit well with me. All in all, a disappointment.

Christopher Guest has quite the resume and reputation for his quirky, awkward satirical mockumentaries, but "For Your Consideration" simply doesn't measure up with the rest.

It's hard not to judge "Consideration" by its predecessors such as "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind." With the same cast, the same satirical (though not full out mockumentary) style, it simply asks for that and it doesn't succeed the way those movies do.

The premise of "Consideration" is on the set of a movie (a ridiculous) movie and the overblown Oscar hype that the film gets. The film contains everyone from the actors to the producer in the cast, as well as a couple Hollywood-focused TV show hosts. The characters are still quirky and amusing in a subtle way, yet something is off. Their depth and the interest in what is happening to them is non-existent and it makes it harder to laugh at the them in the long run and considering characters tend to drive Guest's films, that makes it tough from the get-go.

The plot is simply not as intriguing as well. This perhaps lies in the fact that the focus is not on something obscure like dog shows or traveling folk musicians, but instead on basic Hollywood, which offers less genuine interest in subject alone. Compound that with the weak characters and you have a huge Guest disappointment.

I truly enjoyed this film, as did most everyone else at the World Premier in Toronto. Firstly, I haven't seen Spinal Tap, but of all the rest of his films, this is my favorite. His decision to depart the mockumentary format worked wonders in his favor. He didn't change his format so dramatically that you're unaware you're watching a Guest movie, it still carries his stamp. What he's done with this format is find a way to shave off all the somewhat boring bits that his other movies had durring the middle. Every second of this film was completely entertaining and will have you on the floor with laughter. The way he pokes fun of the silliness surrounding the Academy Awards is hilarious.

Guest himself probably gave my favorite performance as the director of "Home for Purim", with Jennifer Collidge coming in second as the producer. I truly can't wait to see this movie again when it goes wide release.