| Overall Grade: |
A- |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A- |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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Consider This A Hollywood Warning
by Eric (movies profile)
Sep 7, 2007
6
of
7 people found this review helpful
We have seen movies that have shown the underbelly of the Hollywood dream, and they usually end up on a curb or in jail or revolving around fast food. There's one Hollywood nightmare that never seems to be seen much of; mediocrity. Perhaps the saddest fall any aspiring performer can have is knowing that they'll never see higher than twentieth billing. Now comes For Your Consideration, which has to be the saddest comedy that I've ever seen, but one that has a nasty bite, and also a noble charm to it.
The film starts off with an act of desperation; a fifty-something actress (Catherine O'Hara) lip-synching to an old movie that I hope is one of her favorites (but might not be the case). She comes to work at a movie studio where the guard at the gate wrongly identifies her as the actress who worked with Sharon Stone in that movie. She's playing the mother in a 40s melodrama called Home for Purim about a Southern Jewish family that plays more like a bad soap opera from the scenes we see. The actor playing her husband (Harry Shearer) is well-known for playing a hot dog in commercials. Her on-screen daughter (Parker Posey) is a failed comedian. The director (director Christopher Guest) looks like Tony Kushner on a bad hair day (if you don't get the joke, don't worry about it). The producer (Jennifer Coolidge) complains that she's doing all the paying and is getting little attention. And then of course there's the writers, the publicist, the agent (Eugene Levy), gossip hounds, critics, and Hollywood insiders all looking for the next big thing.
But what really kicks things off is when a website makes mention that Purim might be in the running for an Academy Award. It starts off as a little rumor, then turns into buzz, then explodes into fervor long before it gets to the screen. The cast is put on the talk shows to fan the flames a little, the studio head (an excellent small part by Ricky Gravais) starts getting involved, and soon everybody wants a piece of the action. But the film isn't interested in showing collaboration. It's interested in seeing the delusions of people who only see their stars burning brighter at the expense of what they know are true. Hollywood might be where dreams come true, but it comes with a price on the soul. And just paying for it doesn't mean you're granted to join in.
Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy's script for this film is much more on-target than their previous ventures. The first major difference is that this is the first film they've done outside of the mockumentary format that has become more of a gimmick than a style. This makes the film more interesting since it targets itself as a part of the Hollywood it's ripping. Many of the jokes that the film has aren't very laughable since they target the character's undying hope for recognition, and yet doesn't make them the butt of the joke. What is laughable comes with the over inflated egos that come with the territory. The best scene in the movie involves a quick meeting between the writers, the director, and the producer. All three parties upset at the others because they all think they deserve more credit for their job. When we get around to the last act, the comedy is vicious in a way that I cannot talk about without spoiling things, but to say that the final scene will be etched into your mind in the same way that Sunset Blvd's ending did.
Guest once again brings out his usual players to his film. Perfect casting choices are made for the four main "actors" in the film. O'Hara being the most poignant as a woman seeing the end of career coming much too soon for her taste. Shearer allows his character to also find a deeper desperation underneath a timid frame trying too hard to hold on to his respectability. Parker Posey has always been on the brink of stardom with her rapid-fire wit and keen sense of pacing and yet never got that nudge over the top (Blade: Trinity and Superman Returns didn't help either). She allows her character to represent that side of herself that also feels the need to make her mark fast or fade away. Other great performances come from John Michael Huggins as a publicist that perhaps too much about his job to be effective, Jane Lynch and Fred Willard as Hollywood Insiders with a penchant for the overdramatic and deviously cynical, and Gravais who allows his "suit" to be understandable and yet sleazy all the same.
For Christopher Guest as a director, he has an incredible eye for pacing. This film is no different. He allows the jokes to never overlap and allows things to feel authentic in tone and fake in substance, the exact message he's trying to say. But his cynicism can be overburdening at places and his ending feels like he let P.T. Anderson take over for a day.
All in all, this is a sad comedy, but still a comedy. Most people won't like it, since it requires people to understand that fame and glamour in Hollywood is an outspoken minority. That for every Michael Douglas there's twenty Michael Parks. And if only a handful of people know their names, to them, that's stardom. |
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