Review of For Your Consideration (2006) by Paul M — 13 Jan 2009

From Singin' in the Rain to The Player, up to such recent TV fare as Entourage and Studio 60 on Sunset Strip, Hollywood has never shied away from a spot of naval-gazing in the name of satire and the new film from Christopher Guest (of This is Spinal Tap and Best in Show fame) attempts to find a fresh angle from which to lampoon the undoubted silliness of the LA dream factory.

Guest elects to base his story around the madness that can surround a movie caught up in Academy Award fever but in spite of the fine comic potential of this scenario, the film fails to raise many belly laughs with the Hollywood portrayed here actually seeming a rather quaint and dated one. Even with a wealth of talent on display - Harry Shearer, Catherine O' Hara, Michael McKean and Ricky Gervais among them - the improvised scenes rarely rise above the level of gently amusing and it seems implausible that the fictional film at the centre of the Oscar buzz, Home for Purim, would ever be made. Guest's co-writer Eugene Levy and John Michael Higgins do most to tickle the funny bone as a pair of clueless agents but, while the film is a likable one, the relative lack of comedic juice squeezed out of what appears on the surface to be a promising subject makes the whole thing something of a disappointment.