A film can't go to 11 when there are a dozen actors vying to be Nigel.
For Your Consideration (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:153
Fresh:77
Rotten:76
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: As the object of satire gets bigger the jokes become thinner, and Christopher Guest isn’t as droll or insightful here than when he was lampooning smaller subjects.
Runtime: 86 mins
Genre: Comedies
US Box Office: $5,490,967
Synopsis: Arch satirist Christopher Guest (THIS IS SPINAL TAP, BEST IN SHOW) brings more mirth to the screen, providing an inimitable take on the film industry with FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. The plot follows... Arch satirist Christopher Guest (THIS IS SPINAL TAP, BEST IN SHOW) brings more mirth to the screen, providing an inimitable take on the film industry with FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. The plot follows the cast and crew of a fictional movie called HOME FOR PURIM, which is directed by Jay Berman (played by Guest himself) and stars an aging actress at the end of her career, Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara); an actor best known for starring in a hotdog ad, Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer); and young Callie Webb (Parker Posey), who is trying to put her VAGINA MONOLOGUES-esque past (in a production called NO PENIS INTENDED) firmly behind her. As Berman and Co. attempt to bring HOME FOR PURIM to the screen, a variety of supporting players flits in and out of the movie, with Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Coolidge appearing as two very different producers, Jane Lynch and Fred Willard playing the glitzy hosts of trashy celebrity-obsessed TV show HOLLYWOOD NOW, and Bob Balaban appearing as a frustrated co-writer. This motley bunch all get along just fine until an Oscar buzz surrounds certain cast members, leading to a fierce explosion of wildly different ideas and ambitions for the film. Fans of Guest's movies will doubtless experience a welcome familiarity in the feel of FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. The usual deadpan wit, carefully crafted satire, and close attention to detail in everything from Fred Willard's haircut to the computer graphics of HOLLYWOOD NOW are all lovingly rendered, and Guest's loyal troupe of performers--as well as a sprinkling of new faces--delivers the material with habitual ease. In an era when most Hollywood comedy sticks to a strict, well-trodden formula, it's satisfying to find someone like Guest plowing a lonely furrow against the grain, and there's enough spark in FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION to suggest he still has plenty of wit yet to bestow on his faithful audience. [More]
Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer
Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Fred Willard, Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Coolidge, Bob Balaban, Rachel Harris, Ed Begley, Sandra Oh, Jane Lynch, Loudon Wainwright
Director: Christopher Guest
Director: Christopher Guest
Producer: Karen Murphy
Studio: Warner Independent
Reviews for For Your Consideration
As usual, the result combines laughs with poignancy: O'Hara and Shearer, in particular, can be funny without reducing their characters to cartoons.
This goof (it's not really strong enough to qualify as a spoof, much less a satire) on Oscar fever descending on an indie production is particularly thin stuff.
The cast's semi-improvised schtick hits its mark with cutting precision, but the word on the street is that For Your Consideration can't be considered anything but a comic trifle.
In order to stay ahead as a mocker these days, you must nail your subject for good.
Guest carves a plastic-surgery rictus into Catherine O'Hara's face that's as disturbing as the Gwynplaine smile cut into the title victim in 'The Black Dahlia' -- a literally ugly fate unjustified by the sketch-comedy antics that precede it.
And the winner is... something other than this. We considered it and were not impressed.
The goings-on in For Your Consideration are as uproariously funny as in any of Guest's films to date; and thanks to O'Hara's genius, they're a little heartbreaking, too.
Everyone's entitled to a slump, and this is only the first blah film in five for Guest (if we count This is Spinal Tap, which he stars in and wrote with McKean, Shearer and Rob Reiner).
Guest is on the right track here, but it would have taken more conceptual hard work, and more good writing, to make this premise work.
Guest and his co-writer, Eugene Levy, aren't afraid to chew off the hand that feeds them.
For Your Consideration won't win an Oscar, but it probably will win some adulation from hard-core Guest fans.
For all the shots it takes at Hollywood pretense, there's nothing all that nasty about the movie %u2014 or all that original.
I don't doubt that people who've worked in Hollywood will find plenty to chortle about. For the rest of us, though, For Your Consideration is largely insider baseball.
O'Hara delivers a tour de force performance, channeling all the hopefulness, rage and despair that will doubtless strike a chord with aging, frequently unemployed and quickly forgotten thespians all across Los Angeles.
Few things are more disappointing than watching one of your favorite comedians struggling through an off night. So it goes with Christopher Guest's latest feature For Your Consideration.
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November 12, 2008:
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November 11, 2008:
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