Film Review

04 December 2008 03:03 BST

For Your Consideration

Directed by Christopher Guest, out February 9th, starring Catherine O'Hara, Ricky Gervais and Christopher Guest, running time 86 minutes.

In a nutshell…

A cringingly funny Hollywood critique

What's it all about?

For Your Consideration mocks everyone and everything in Hollywood. Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy are completely remorseless in their breakdown of every facet of tinseltown – be it aspiring actors, pretentious directors, frustrated writers or gaudy gossip journalists. The film caricatures the cast and crew of the spoof movie Home for Purim, setting it against the glitzy and grotesque approach to awards season. Three of the film's stars receive hints that they may be in the running for an Oscar nomination. Their growing excitement and ultimate disappointment makes the film.

Who's in it?

The writers, for a start. Christopher Guest, directing For Your Consideration, also plays the director of Home for Purim, Jay Berman, while co-writer Eugene Levy is Morley Orfkin, a talent agent looking out for one of the hapless three hopeful actors.

Also making an appearance in one of his first forays into Hollywood cinema is Ricky Gervais. He plays pretty much the same character he always has, this time in the guise of a studio executive asking the film's writers to "take out the Jewish-ness".

Then there's Catherine O'Hara, who pulls off the jaded and faded self-delusion of Marilyn Hack to perfection. Fred Willard plays Chuck Porter, the co-anchor of tabloid gossip show 'Hollywood Now', while Harry Shearer humiliates himself through various absurdities as journeyman actor Victor Allan Miller.

As an example…

Jay Berman (director): I love that you did all this work. And it'll serve you well – but not in this movie.

Lane Iverson (complaining about his mauled script): You can't throw the baby out with the bathwater because then all you have is a wet, critically injured baby.

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

This movie may be all about whether its characters have a chance of a trip to the Oscars, but that doesn't mean it aspires to any such glittering heights. Guest has made an unpretentious and fun independent film, very much in line with his previous mockumentary efforts. So it won't get an Oscar – but who cares? He and his cast certainly don't.

What the others say

"By the end, For Your Consideration feels like a missed opportunity through and through." – Los Angeles Daily News

"It] works chiefly because they continue to simultaneously embrace and condemn the cruel superficiality of their self-absorbed losers." – Variety

So is it any good?

Some directors, when they want to cast their gaze over Hollywood, make dark and disturbing films like Mulholland Drive. Others take a different tack: biting satire and relentless humour. That's exactly what Guest and co have done in For Your Consideration, a whimsical yet critical look which ultimately shows an affection for tinseltown and its eccentric inhabitants.

If you want intellectual stimulation, masterful performances and avant garde writing, don't bother with this. Guest offers his own unique brand – an attractive combination of light-hearted laughter and cheerful satire which the viewer has to accept to get on with the film. He makes it easy to roll with, for the movie does not descend into tedium at any point. Strangely enough, the final plot resolution seems a little abrupt – a sad ending turns into an inconclusive one with the viewer feeling somewhat hard-done-by when the end comes.

Having said that, it's not really the plot structure which is the main attraction; instead Guest revels in the paradoxes inherent in a movie whose subject is movies. For example, at the end of a film about actors desperate for credit, the rolling credits list everyone involved in its making. For Your Consideration is harmless fun – nothing to get snooty, or excited, about.

6/10

Alex Stevenson

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