For Your Consideration

Christopher Guest, probably still best known to most as Count Rugen, the six fingered man from The Princess Bride, seems to be able to reunite the same cast for an improv comedy every couple of years. And it always seems to focus on people in a very particular world, whose passions tend to come off as a little bit sad. Nothing against any of these pursuits, but to put so much energy into community theatre (Waiting For Guffman) or dog shows (Best in Show) always struck me as somewhat pitiful. Now, with For Your Consideration, we move into genuinely pathetic territory. And the results are mixed.

Home for Purim (fake official website) is a low budget film about a Jewish family celebrating what I gather is a relatively minor holiday. It stars Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer), an actor mostly memorable for his role in a hot dog suit for a series of commercials, and Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara), one of those "whatever happened to..." actors with one memorable role in the 80s. Things get out of hand, though, when the film starts to generate Oscar buzz. Actors become desperate to relaunch their careers, the studio wants to rework the story to better capitalize on the early good word, and the press apparently has nothing better to do than to pick up on the hype and magnify it.

Catherine O'Hara gives a great performance as Hack, doing a great job portraying her downward spiral. I always enjoy Parker Posey's work, and I thought she looked fantastic in it (particularly in a couple scenes where she's wearing glasses... she's working the sexy librarian look). John Michael Higgins (link provided because nobody seems to know this guy by name) is relegated to a bit part here, but it's one of the funniest in the movie ("I am one-eighth mighty Chocktaw"). And Fred Willard is always hilarious in these movies.

However, I felt like there were about 45 minutes of good material in the main story, but so many plot elements and characters that were just filler. Jennifer Coolidge's ditzy producer who's only job is to write checks, the two writers, Ricky Gervais' studio executive character, whatever Ed Begley Jr. was supposed to be (makeup artist, maybe?)... they all just seemed to fill in time. Each had a funny moment or two, but not a big enough laugh that they managed to actually feel worthwhile.

It's not a bad movie, it just suffers compared to previous outings Best in Show and even A Mighty Wind, so I know they can do better.