For Your Consideration

Review by Clint Morris

Sex. Once you’ve done it, you’ll wanna keep on doing it. It doesn’t much matter whether you’re any good at it either – because, well, three quarters of the world are in the same boat. 

Filmmaker Christopher Guest – renowned for his highly improvisational all-star comedies - considers his mockumentarries (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) to be intercourse. Might feel OK to him, but for us, first time was great, second time wasn’t quite as good, and every time since has been a bit of a letdown. He can’t seem to stop and he doesn’t plan on doing so anytime soon.

His latest sardonic mock (though this one takes more of a narrative approach), For Your Consideration, won’t exactly have you creaming with excitement, but like bumpin’ uglies with a hotel floozie, it sure passes the time alright. But one of these days, we’re going to want more, right?

A film that’s full of opportunities, but fails to make use of them, Consideration is set around the world of film and television stars – in this case, the B-grade stars of an upcoming movie; all of whom, at one time or another, are receiving early Oscar ‘buzz’ – which could be merely one guy in an internet chat room, or some guy on a little-watched TV morning show’s suggestion  - for their performances in the movie.

As nomination announcement day nears closer, the fight between the cast becomes more ferocious. (Cue jokes about impulsive plastic surgery, actors mass-marketing themselves to unfamiliar terrain – like MTV - and agents riding on the coat-tails of an actor while they’re hot).

It’s fantastic to see Guest’s regular cast – Eugene Levy (also the co-writer of the script), Jim Piddock, Ed Begley Jr, Parker Posey, Michael McKean, Jennifer Coolidge, Catherine O’Hara, Harry Shearer; and so on - back together, and there are some funny moments (mostly thanks to the always-terrific Fred Willard; here playing a zany ‘Entertainment Tonight’ style TV host), but there’s something not afoot here.

There just hasn’t been enough thought or pre-planning gone into the movie - Considering Ricky Gervais, the star of the similar-themed TV series Extras co-stars in the movie, you’d think he might’ve been able to slip Guest some suggestions on-set… but like the audience, the British comic, probably presumed he’d be in good hands? – and most notably, the characters just aren’t as interesting or as amusing to watch as they have been in Guest’s previous pics. In retrospect, the filmmaker forgot to give everyone a good part – and instead, seems to have just been intent with ‘squeezing’ them all in.

Not bad, but won’t win any Awards.

3 out of 5

For Your Consideration
Australian release: 25th January, 2007
Cast: Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, John Michael Higgins
Director: Christopher Guest
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