Theatrical Review of For Your Considertation

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Satire can be the hardest genre to work in. Too much tweaking and the result is unintentionally cruel. Not enough and it looks like the writer is trying not to offend. Writer/director/actor Christopher Guest's latest, "For Your Consideration", falls somewhere in the middle: it is a slight indictment against studio bosses who interfere in a production when awards buzz starts, yet it is also terribly depressing when the inevitable happens.

One-time movie stars Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) and Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer) headline an indie drama called "Home for Purim", a movie which centers on a Jewish holiday. Hack is permanently stuck in her glory days, going as far as to re-watch her films seemingly every day. When an internet spy gets on the set and writes about her chances for an Oscar nomination, she and the production become obsessed with awards. Soon, the drama's name is changed to "Home for Thanksgiving" in an attempt to make it more audience-friendly. Then, the unbelievable happens: Callie Webb (Parker Posey) is thrown into the Oscar speculation mix, throwing Hack's nomination into doubt. The production studio launches an all-out media blitz to support "Home for Thanksgiving"…including throwing its stars into the deep end of their own personal oceans.

Being a Guest virgin (his previous films include "A Mighty Wind" and "Waiting for Guffman", among others), I was unsure of what to expect. Would this be an all out comedy that appeals to the mass audience or would it be a more refined, understated comedy like the currently airing "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"? The trailers would have us believe it is the former more than the latter. While "For Your Consideration" does have its share of laugh out loud moments-most notably with Fred Willard as an "Entertainment Tonight"-type show host-the rest is decidedly un-Adam Sandler.

The fact that the out of control spiral the crew of "Home for Thanksgiving" find themselves in is the result of the marriage of an internet spy and the stars own hubris. When the word Oscar starts getting thrown around, they morph from people who signed onto the film because they had a passion for the material to a group obsessed with the gold statue. Lead among them is Hack, where the buzz starts. It moves to Webb, her younger costar. In the best tradition of "All About Eve", Hack doesn't turn into a bitch like Margo Channing rather, she goes through all the motions to be seen as a supportive costar. A similar thought to what happened in real life for Bette Davis and Anne Baxter (they competed in the same category, ultimately both losing) ran through my mind during all the Oscar talk in "Consideration": why wasn't there a push for Hack to get the Best Actress nomination and Webb the Supporting Actress one? That possibility isn't even mentioned, which comes off as a little bit of a shock. For a film with tongue planted firmly in cheek and pretending to be a part of reality, why isn't anyone thinking like a real person?

Satire is defined as "a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule". What Guest and his company of actors is satirizing here is human ego. This is no more evident than near the end during the full-fledged Oscar push. Webb is a guest on a raunchy radio talk show she is clearly too civilized for (let's just say the two hosts mention morning wood more than once). Miller, who is portrayed as a classically trained actor, finds himself on a "Total Request Live" program, dancing to hip hop music in a room full of the under-20 set. Perhaps the biggest fall from grace is that of Hack, the one person for whom the nomination means the entire world. She changes from an older, mature actress-think Annette Bening or Katharine Hepburn-into someone wearing flashy, low cut clothes and copious amounts of makeup…all in an attempt to court younger-skewing Academy members.

Hers is the most depressing transformation, a woman who has basically changed everything about herself for this one chance. She has completely sold out. Because this is a satire, a bit of irony wouldn't be unexpected. The one main cast member who doesn't seem to care about nominations-Christopher Moynihan's Brian Chubb-turns out to be the only person to actually get recognition. The last the audience sees of Brian is the phone call telling him he was nominated. We're never told if he wins the award or what anyone thinks about it.

In the end, it doesn't really matter since the story isn't about the people who get what they want it's about the people and the extraordinary lengths they go to in order to achieve their dreams. Ultimately, I can't quite decide if their individual transformations and journeys are funny and worthy of the laughs they initially generate or if they are so sad and depressing we should feel dirty for chuckling. Seeing Miller come out onto the music show set in a t-shirt and highlights in his hair is initially hilarious, but as the scene continues, it dawns on the audience how demeaning this entire act is for him. He's a fish out of water, in a setting he never expected to be in and, frankly, is beneath him.

I do want to spend a minute talking about Willard, who I mentioned a little while ago. He is consistently the funniest part of the entire movie, even though he had no more than ten minutes of actual screen time. When he is utilized, his Chuck Porter is so completely over the top and supplies the type of humor the audience expects out of the movie. He also serves as a counterpoint to the understated humor throughout the film, not to mention a lighter side to the second half of the production.

Sitting through "For Your Consideration", I felt as though I was watching a more satiric version of "Studio 60". The humor isn't the blatant comedy other films like "Borat" flaunt. The script reaches as high as the film can really go in terms of making comedy that isn't screwball or slapstick. As the definition goes, the laughs come from watching human's do stupid things for the benefit of their individual ego. At the same time, the things we initially scoff at become a sad commentary on the state of human affairs when they're watched for any length of time.

With a stellar cast that also includes Parker Posey, Ed Begley, Jr., and a whole host of other recognizable actors, "For Your Consideration" does tweak the Oscar push we get every year. Maybe because the end credits seem to come out of left field and the movie is entirely too short (a paltry 86 minutes), "For Your Consideration" leaves a bad taste in the audiences mouth. This is, perhaps, the textbook example of a movie having its parts better than the whole. The elements are there, admirable things are done with those elements. It just feels…incomplete. Maybe that was the intention: leave the audience feeling empty just as the three Oscar hopefuls feel at the end of their journey.

"For Your Consideration", on a scale of 1 to 10, rates a 6.

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