For Your Consideration (film)
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| For Your Consideration | |
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| Directed by | Christopher Guest |
| Produced by | Karen Murphy |
| Written by | Christopher Guest Eugene Levy |
| Starring | Harry Shearer Catherine O'Hara Parker Posey Christopher Guest Michael McKean Bob Balaban Ricky Gervais Jane Lynch Eugene Levy Fred Willard |
| Music by | Christopher Guest Eugene Levy |
| Distributed by | Warner Independent Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 17, 2006 |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
For Your Consideration is a feature film directed (and co-written) by Christopher Guest.
The film, titled with a phrase used in trade advertisements to promote films for Academy Awards, revolves around three actors (played by Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, and Harry Shearer) learning their performances in the film Home for Purim, a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz.
While largely improvised by the actors, it is not in the mockumentary style of Guest's recent films. Many of the cast return from This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind, including Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, Ed Begley Jr., John Michael Higgins and Jim Piddock. Ricky Gervais, the co-creator of the British television series The Office, also appears and Sandra Oh makes a brief cameo.
The film received its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2006.
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[edit] Characters
[edit] Cast of Home for Purim
- Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara)
- Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer)
- Callie Webb (Parker Posey)
- Brian Chubb (Christopher Moynihan)
- Mary Pat Hooligan (Rachael Harris)
[edit] Other Characters
- Sandy Lane (Ed Begley, Jr.), stylist, Home for Purim
- Whitney Taylor Brown (Jennifer Coolidge), producer, Home for Purim
- Jay Berman (Christopher Guest), director, Home for Purim
- Simon Whitset (Jim Piddock), director of photography, Home for Purim
- Philip Koontz - (Bob Balaban), screenwriter, Home for Purim
- Lane Iverson - (Michael McKean), screenwriter, Home for Purim
- Corey Taft - (John Michael Higgins), publicist, Home for Purim
- Syd Finkleman - (Larry Miller), studio executive
- Martin Gibb - (Ricky Gervais), studio executive
- Chuck Porter (Fred Willard), TV host
- Cindy Martin - (Jane Lynch), TV host
- Ben Connelly - (Loudon Wainwright III), nominee
- Hate It Film Critic - (Michael Hitchcock)
- Love It Film Critic - (Don Lake)
- "Paper Badge" Sergeant - (Paul Dooley)
- "Paper Badge" Cop - (John Krasinski)
- Morley Orfkin - (Eugene Levy), Victor Allan Miller's agent
- Pilgrim Man - (Shawn Christian)
[edit] Plot summary
O'Hara plays veteran actress Marilyn Hack who, despite having been in the industry for 30 years, is best known for playing a blind prostitute in a film from the late 1980s. Her co-star Victor Allen Miller (Shearer) is also a 30-year acting veteran who is known to the public as the hot-dog wearing mascot for a kosher line of frankfurters. Together they are cast as the patriarch and dying matriarch of a southern U.S. Jewish family in the 1940s.
Posey, as newcomer ingenue Callie Webb, plays their lesbian daughter who has come home along with her girlfriend (Rachael Harris). Rounding out the cast is Christopher Moynihan as actor Brian Chubb, who plays her brother who has returned home from the Navy. The family reunites in time to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim.
The film-within-a-film's plot centers around the daughter's confession of her lesbianism as her mother gets nearer to death. As the filming continues, Oscar buzz begins around all of the cast (with the exception of Chubb). Each of them begins obsessing about the award potential in their own way. Hack pretends not to care while secretly pining for the award. Miller begins to demand a higher salary and more prolific work. Webb breaks up with Chubb (her boyfriend), claiming he is not being supportive.
At this point studio executives butt in and force the writers to make script changes, feeling the film is "too Jewish". Ultimately the film is retitled Home for Thanksgiving. Despite the changes, the Oscar buzz intensifies to the point where Hack, Miller, and Webb are convinced they will be nominated for Academy Awards. They all begin to do major press appearances for the film. These are often embarrassing, both for the actors and the movie audience. In one scene, Miller appears on a hip-hop teen show called Chillaxin'. In an attempt to reflect her Oscar-worthy status, Hack gets breast implants and extensive plastic surgery to the point where her face is comically ecstatic.
Ultimately the only person nominated for an award is Chubb for Best Supporting Actor, who was the one person for whom there was no buzz at all. (He sleeps in on the morning of the announcement of the nominations.) Hack becomes an acting teacher, and Miller goes back to auditioning for food commercials. Webb revives her failed one-woman show No Penis Intended.
[edit] Awards
Almost ironically, Catherine O'Hara received awards attention for her portrayal of Marylin Hack in this film. She won the National Board of Review's Best Supporting Actress award and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the category of Best Female Lead. Despite this buzz, O'Hara, just like the character she portrayed in the film, failed to garner an Academy Award nomination.
[edit] Trivia
- Catherine O'Hara drew rave reviews, some implying that she deserved an Academy Award nomination for her performance. [1] [2]
- Two references to an earlier film by Guest, Waiting For Guffman, are made: Ed Begley Jr's character is an apparently gay man who claims to have a wife, as is Guest's character in Guffman. Also, during Miss Webb's performance of "No Penis Intended" near the end, the pianist plays a brief homage to the "Stool Song" from Waiting For Guffman.
[edit] External links
- For Your Consideration at the Internet Movie Database
- Review at Variety
- Review at Being There
- For Your Consideration at Rotten Tomatoes
- For Your Consideration Mansized review
| Films by Christopher Guest and his frequent costars |
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| Films: This Is Spinal Tap | Waiting for Guffman | Best in Show | A Mighty Wind | For Your Consideration |
| Actors: Bob Balaban | Paul Benedict | Ed Begley Jr. | Jennifer Coolidge | Paul Dooley | Christopher Guest | Rachael Harris | John Michael Higgins | Michael Hitchcock | Don Lake | Eugene Levy | Jane Lynch | Michael McKean | Larry Miller | Catherine O'Hara | Jim Piddock | Parker Posey | Harry Shearer | Deborah Theaker | Fred Willard | Scott Williamson |
