I know you are
all excited to hear this is from the same guys who brought you This Is
Spinal
Tap, Best in
Show, Waiting
For Guffman and A Mighty
Wind, but you would enjoy
your evening so much better if you rent one of those movies instead of
buying a
ticket to For
Your Consideration.
In this satire
of Hollywood
and everything Oscar, Marilyn Hack (Catherine O’Hara), Victor
Allen Miller
(Harry Shearer), Callie Webb (Parker Posey) and Brian Chubb
(Christopher
Moynihan) are the stars of the small period piece film with no
expectations –
Home For Purim. As
you can imagine, the
movie is full of every cliché and hack piece of dialogue
ever written, while
most of the cast is past its prime, or never had a prime to begin with. However, everything
changes when a small,
internet report claims Marilyn’s performance could win her an
Oscar
nomination. Now,
the publicists are in
overdrive, the studio steps in to take full advantage of the early
buzz, and the
actors are dreaming of a moment that could change their lives forever.
Will Marilyn win
that Oscar nomination? Will
Home For
Purim be the surprise hit of the year?
The
set up for
the movie is full of comic potential, but the execution kills it deader
than Mel Gibson's plans to make the story of Hanukkah into a movie. While watching For
Your Consideration, I got
the feeling that the cast members (led as always by Shearer,
Christopher Guest
and Michael McKean) are all so familiar with each other and respectful
of one
another that no one was willing to admit the jokes aren’t
funny. It’s
like watching a close group of friends
congratulating each other and sharing inside jokes that no one else is
all that
privy to. Plus, the
structure seems all
messed up.
The first part
of the movie, where everyone is making this melodramatic dog of a film,
is fine
enough, and sets the stage for what we in the audience know would be
the most
undeserved Oscar campaign in the history of Hollywood (at least until Jessica Alba steals a nomination).
However, Guest and company rush through the
other two pieces of the puzzle and produce a film that is a mish mash
of scenes
looking for some coherence.
The
Oscar
campaign and media blitz are shortchanged, and the big climax as to who
is
nominated and who wins, is just an afterthought, which leaves too much
good
material and satire on the table. Was the team afraid to skewer people they have to see on a daily basis?
We are
left with some chuckles, especially with Ricky Gervais as the smarmy
studio
exec who has his own thoughts on how to market Home for Purim, and Fred
Willard
as the entertainment show host who seems clueless.
For
Your
Consideration needs more jokes, funnier dialogue, better
development and an
ending that packs a punch instead of a surrender.
1 Waffle
(Out Of 4)
For Your Consideration is rated PG-13 for sexual references and brief language
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2006 - WaffleMovies.com
