For Your Consideration

Christopher Guest comedies are to cinema what Arrested Development was to the contemporary televised sitcom. They provide the ideal showcase for the brilliant comedic talents of marvelous character actors, who skewer societal pomposity by embodying lovably flawed characters. With each successive film, or episode, the family of actors becomes so recognizable and reliably funny that they inspire a guffaw with their mere appearance. Their humor is so richly insightful and oftentimes subtle that it generates critical praise and a passionate fan base, but not much else.

Such is the case for Guest’s latest offering, which aims its satirical target at Hollywood’s self-congratulatory annual tradition of awards-season buzz. Catherine O’Hara is Marilyn Hack, a struggling veteran actress starring in an immensely dated – and immensely Jewish – drama entitled Home for Purim. Also on board is Harry Shearer as a Broadway actor best known for his wiener commercials, Jennifer Coolidge as an awesomely brain-dead producer who’s recuperating from falling off the side of an escalator, Guest himself as the film’s clueless director who resembles a tubby Woody Allen, and Parker Posey as a bitter actress whose one-woman show “No Penis Intended” was unanimously labeled a ‘humorless romp.’ When Hack stumbles upon an online rumor about her performance being nominated for an Oscar, the indie outsiders experience their first taste of the media hype machine.

This is essentially a rethinking of Guest’s own classic Waiting for Guffman, about a local theatre troupe awaiting the alleged visit of a Broadway producer. Yet while the stage show of Guffman was hilariously probable in its success with the small town public, Purim’s blatantly laughable melodrama makes the media-attention it acquires nothing more than a flight of fancy. While this is certainly the least credible of Guest’s ensemble comedies, it’s also one of his most ambitious. Guest does away with the mockumentary-style plot structure he created in 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap, allowing the film to have a rambling narrative mainly built on improvisation. Coming after his warmest film, the Oscar-nominated A Mighty Wind, this is perhaps the darkest and most chillingly pessimistic satire Guest has ever made, including an epilogue that is considerably more painful than playful.

For Your Consideration also assembles Guest’s largest cast yet. I haven’t even mentioned John Michael Higgins as a publicist vocally proud of his Indian heritage, the British Office’s Ricky Gervais as a smarmy studio president, Bob Balaban and Michael McKean as the oft-mistreated Jewish screenwriters, Eugene Levy as Shearer’s pathetically deceitful agent, and the scene-stealing duo of Jane Lynch and Fred Willard as the ferociously elated hosts of an Entertainment Tonight-style show. It’s here where the film’s satire is most potent, in its depiction of the dehumanizing nature of Hollywood’s media monster. There are also some spot-on send-ups of Charlie Rose and Ebert & Roeper, as well as a central performance from the vastly underrated comedienne O’Hara that emerges as the heart and soul of the entire enterprise. Her character’s horrific journey provides the film with its best surprises.

Being a tremendous fan of Guest’s work, I saw Consideration twice on opening weekend. My first viewing of the film was blinded by my sheer love of the ensemble. It wasn’t until my second screening that I could clearly observe the film’s shortcomings. Guest displays a startling lack of focus by packing too many characters into a jarringly brisk running time, and several of the scenes he’s left in the finished film fall distressingly flat. Hollywood proves to be too easy a target for his deceptively gentle satire, and Consideration lacks the biting wit of what is perhaps Guest’s definitive highpoint, Best in Show. I was consciously aware of these flaws the second time around, and yet they made me appreciate the film’s successful aspects even more. Managing to be both hysterical and devastating at the same time, O’Hara’s work here is staggering, ironically worthy of the exact awards buzz the film is mocking.

It may not be on par with Guest’s best work, but Consideration is still a highly enjoyable film, filled with wonderful moments of hilarity that layer a deeply tragic heart. I recently spoke with the film’s co-star, and Spinal Tap’s bass player, Harry Shearer about the unique experience of working on a Guest film. He told me that each film is roughly scripted by Guest and Levy with the dialogue replaced by character descriptions. For nearly a month, the actors individually create their own characters – buying their clothes, trying on accents – and don’t even interact with one another until they arrive on set. Thus, the first rehearsal is take one. In the new age of Borat, Guest’s technique may seem a touch tame and outdated. Yet the genius and originality of him and his entire ensemble make even a supposed folly like For Your Consideration a far more winning contender than the majority of studio-bred comedies. It won’t win any Oscars, but wouldn’t such a success be the ultimate contradiction?

Rating: ***1/2 (out of *****)