For Your Consideration (2006)

Three actors learn that their respective performances in the film "Home for Purim," a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz.

Director:

Christopher Guest

Writers:

Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy

Stars:

Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey

3 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Catherine O'Hara	...	Marilyn Hack
Stephen Rannazzisi	...	Studio Gate Guard
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Sandy Lane
Eugene Levy	...	Morley Orfkin
Harry Shearer	...	Victor Allan Miller
Christopher Moynihan	...	Brian Chubb
Christopher Guest	...	Jay Berman
John Michael Higgins	...	Corey Taft
Carrie Aizley	...	Pam Campanella
Stephanie Courtney	...	Boom Operator
Suzy Nakamura	...	First AC
Jim Piddock	...	Simon Whitset
Jane Morris	...	Script Supervisor
Jennifer Coolidge	...	Whitney Taylor Brown
Jordan Black	...	Whitney's Assistant

Storyline

Hollywood send-up. No-name actors are making a low-budget period drama called "Home for Purim," when an anonymous post on the Internet suggests that one performance is Oscar-worthy. Then, two more cast members get Oscar-related press: buzz in "Variety" and appearances on TV prompt the studio executives to insist on changes in the script in anticipation of a blockbuster. Jump ahead a few months to the days before Oscar nominees are announced: just the possibility of a nomination has changed the actors' lives. Agents, publicists, make-up artists, local celebrity reporters, and other bit players round out the backstage ensemble. Hooray for Hollywood!

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Plot Keywords:

actor | purim | publicist | internet | make up | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sexual references and brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Cinema Blend - Poster Warner Indepentent Pictures [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

22 November 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Es lebe Hollywood

Filming Locations:

Culver Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$372,012, 19 November 2006, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$5,542,025, 21 January 2007

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shangri-La Entertainment,Castle Rock Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

'For Your Consideration' features a cameo by John Krasinski, known as Jim Halpert on the NBC sitcom The Office (2005). British comedian Ricky Gervais, also known as David Brent on the BBC version of The Office (2001), appears in the film as Martin Gibb.

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Goofs

The title of the French film the actress is nominated for is incorrectly named 'Le cheval obscurite'. 'Obscurite' is the noun form of dark, the adjective form 'obscur' should have been used. At any rate, the expression 'dark horse' isn't directly translated as thus in French.

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Quotes

Pam Campanella: What does a producer do?
Whitney Taylor Brown: Well, as... as my assistant Lincoln can tell you, there's a lot of telephone calls and... you know, lots of getting out the wallet. And paying for sometimes ridiculous things, like... like snacks.

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Connections

References Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

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Soundtracks

Chill
Written and Performed by C.J. Vanston (as CJ Vanston)

User Reviews

Guest & Levy hit a snag: their penchant for delicious comedy seems diminished here. Time for a new comic formula?

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)