| | | "A New Comedy from the Director of Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind!"
Features: DVD, Widescreen, English, French, Spanish, Subtitled
Debut feature director Jay Berman (Christopher Guest), steers cast and crew through a typically tumultuous independent film Home for Purim, an intimate period drama about a Jewish family's turbulent reunion on the occasion of the dying matriarch's favorite holiday. When Internet-generated rumors begin circulating that three of Purim's stars -- faded luminary Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara), journeyman actor and former hot dog pitchman Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer), and ingenue Callie Webb (Parker Posey) -- may be perpetrating Award-worthy performances, a rumble of excitement rattles the cast. Once Hollywood Now anchors Chuck Porter (Fred Willard) and Cindy Martin (Jane Lynch) pick up the buzz, Award fever infects the entire production. Unit publicist Corey Taft (John Michael Higgins), talent agent Morley Orfkin (Eugene Levy), and producer Whitney Taylor Brown (Jennifer Coolidge) all smell the sudden potential for a sleeper hit. As does Sunfish Classics President Martin Gibb (Ricky Gervais), who suggests some last-minute changes to the film that he feels will broaden the film's appeal. Meanwhile, Purim's screenwriters, Lane Iverson (Michael McKean) and Philip Koontz (Bob Balaban) grow steadily more horrified as they watch the first film adaptation of their work diverge from their original story. As the hopeful Purim team careens toward the end of production and the upcoming Award season, tenuous relationships and brittle dreams play out in unexpected ways...
"...chockfull of the low-key charm, smart performances and understated humor that characterize Guest's work..." Box Office Magazine
"...Guest's latest hilarious cultural corrective is something inspiring to behold." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"...outrageously hilarious...delivered with comic precision by Guest's crack repertory company..." Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
"...as weird and whimsical an invention as Guest's "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show," or "A Mighty Wind."" Nathan Lee, The Village Voice
"...O'Hara is comic perfection...O'Hara deserves Oscar consideration in her funniest, fiercest role." Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Editor's Note
Arch satirist Christopher Guest (THIS IS SPINAL TAP, BEST IN SHOW) brings more mirth to the screen, providing an inimitable take on the film industry with FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. The plot follows the cast and crew of a fictional movie called HOME FOR PURIM, which is directed by Jay Berman (played by Guest himself) and stars an aging actress at the end of her career, Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara); an actor best known for starring in a hotdog ad, Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer); and young Callie Webb (Parker Posey), who is trying to put her VAGINA MONOLOGUES-esque past (in a production called NO PENIS INTENDED) firmly behind her. As Berman and Co. attempt to bring HOME FOR PURIM to the screen, a variety of supporting players flits in and out of the movie, with Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Coolidge appearing as two very different producers, Jane Lynch and Fred Willard playing the glitzy hosts of trashy celebrity-obsessed TV show HOLLYWOOD NOW, and Bob Balaban appearing as a frustrated co-writer. This motley bunch all get along just fine until an Oscar buzz surrounds certain cast members, leading to a fierce explosion of wildly different ideas and ambitions for the film. Fans of Guest's movies will doubtless experience a welcome familiarity in the feel of FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. The usual deadpan wit, carefully crafted satire, and close attention to detail in everything from Fred Willard's haircut to the computer graphics of HOLLYWOOD NOW are all lovingly rendered, and Guest's loyal troupe of performers--as well as a sprinkling of new faces--delivers the material with habitual ease. In an era when most Hollywood comedy sticks to a strict, well-trodden formula, it's satisfying to find someone like Guest plowing a lonely furrow against the grain, and there's enough spark in FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION to suggest he still has plenty of wit yet to bestow on his faithful audience.
| Features | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 5/15/2007 |
| Running Time: 86 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2006 | | Catalog ID: 4030 | | UPC: 00012569403024 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.77:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (2007) | | | Independent Spirit, Catherine O'Hara, Best Female Lead |
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| | Professional Reviews | Box Office
"[C]hockfull of the low-key charm, smart performances and understated humor that characterize Guest's work....His regular cast of actors and a few new ones...bring their best to the table." 11/01/2006 p.102Entertainment Weekly
"Truly, the level of tender, ruthless, inspired, lethally accurate study that has gone into the follicular expression of each and every character in Christopher Guest's latest hilarious cultural corrective is something inspiring to behold." -- Grade: A- 11/24/2006 81 Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Catherine O'Hara is comic perfection....O'Hara deserves Oscar consideration in her funniest, fiercest role." 11/30/2006 p.124 Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[The film] fills it to the brim with a rib-bothering assemblage of asides, observations, in-jokes...plus some of the funniest fashion and personal-grooming errors you'll see this year." 03/01/2007 p.44 Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[I]t's a droll dissection of Oscarmania....Catherine O'Hara and Harry Shearer are both riotous and touching..." 11/01/2006 p.103 Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "[The filmmakers] dispatch their slow-moving target with graceful ruthlessness....[With] the sureness of touch that comes of knowing, even quite liking, the subject of one's scorn." 03/01/2007 p.117 Sight and Sound
"With its patient, watchful camerawork and unhurried pace, the film has a discreet, low-key elegance that makes a refreshing change from the loud, fast-tempo demands of most other Hollywood comedies." 03/01/2007 p.55 ReelViews 8 of 10
Although Guest is the unquestioned King of the Mockumentaries, with For Your Consideration, he steps back from his trademark approach. For Your Consideration is a satire, but it's not set up as a faux documentary. Instead, this send up of the movie industry is constructed as a series of largely improvised you-are-there scenes interspersed with fake TV clips...For Your Consideration has plenty of great one-liners and contains strong individual scenes (a tribute to the comedic aptitude of those involved). Catherine O'Hara is wonderful as an aging actress worried about appearing too old or haggard, even though her character is dying. Eugene Levy is hilarious as a clueless publicist. And Ricky Gervais has a small but memorable turn as a studio head who "suggests" the title be changed to Home for Thanksgiving to "tone down the Jewishness." - James Berardinelli
Reel.com 8 of 10
The king of the mockumentary is back. Christopher Guest, This Is Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel and the leading wit behind Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, returns after a three-year absence to bite the Hollywood hand that feeds him with For Your Consideration...For Your Consideration is amusing, but it is slight. Even though this is a more traditional narrative than Guest's previous mockumentaries, it is still dependent on interviews within the movie to move the story along, and the formula has just grown tired. A Mighty Wind was not as good as Waiting for Guffman or Best in Show, and this is not as good as A Mighty Wind. That it is still far funnier than most of what passes for movie comedy these days is a sad reflection on the industry. But we've come to expect more from Guest. - Pam Grady
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