Synopsis

When Internet-generated rumors begin circulating that three of Purim’s stars: faded luminary Marilyn Hack, journeyman actor and former hot dog pitchman Victor Allan Miller, and ingénue Callie Webb may be perpetrating Award worthy performances, a rumble of excitement rattles the cast. Once "Hollywood Now" TV anchors Chuck Porter and Cindy Martin pick up the buzz, Award fever infects the entire production. Unit publicist Corey Taft, talent agent Morley Orfkin, and producer Whitney Taylor Brown all smell the sudden potential for a sleeper hit. As does Sunfish Classics President Martin Gibb, who suggests some last-minute changes to the film that he feels will broaden the film’s appeal. Meanwhile, Purim’s screenwriters, Lane Iverson and Philip Koontz 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 as the tension mounts amongst the hopefuls from Home For Purim. Then the nominees annoucement come.

What The Critics Say

"It's nice to see a comedy that leaves you wanting more instead of making you wish it had ended 20 minutes sooner." Eric D. Snider ERICDSNIDER.COM "While you may not laugh out loud very often, I'd be willing to bet that most viewers will be smiling almost non-stop." Steve Rhodes INTERNET REVIEWS "For Your Consideration, though uneven, is still chockfull of the low-key charm, smart performances and understated humor that are [Christopher] Guest’s hallmarks." Shlomo Schwartzberg BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE "Crisply made and highly entertaining." Stephanie Zacharek SALON.COM "As those of us who actually follow these entertainment industry sagas head into the real life awards season, it's a pleasure to have For Your Consideration arrive just now to remind us what nonsense it all is." Mary F Pols CONTRA COSTA TIMES "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." Lisa Schwarzbaum ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

"Christopher Guest's aim in For Your Consideration is hilariously accurate." Jack Mathews NEW YORK DAILY NEWS "Hilariously funny and comically precise, Guest's parody of Hollywood's hype machine and award-obsession reaffrims that he is not only an auteur in the trueset sense of the term but a whole movie genre onto himself." Emanuel Levy EMANUELEVY.COM "Fred Willard, as always, just exudes funny as the co-host of 'Entertainment Now,' and Jane Lynch's forced postures as his partner are hilariously spot-on." Marc Mohan OREGONIAN "For Your Consideration, better than anything I've ever seen, articulates my own feelings about the Oscars: Yeah, they're stupid, meaningless and almost always wrong, but how can you not get caught up in their goofy self-seriousness?" Chris Hewitt ST PAUL PIONEER PRESS "The real joy lies in watching some of the funniest actors on the planet nail their characters with penetrating wit and pitiless insight." Robert Denerstein DENVER ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS "Guest and his troupe are clearly having fun poking fun at the industry that pays their bills while psychologically messing with them." Mark Dujsik MARK REVIEWS MOVIES

The Inside Story "The idea of doing something related to show business came up as a little bit of a surprise," Eugene Levy says. "Normally we've tried to stay away from show business. It just seems too easy. The notion of Oscar® dropped in relation to somebody's performance, what it does to that person, and then what it does to everybody else working on the same project; it was a fragile premise, but I thought very funny." And Levy should know. After all, Several publications pre-emptively kicked around his name for Best Supporting Actor after he appeared in 2003's, "A Mighty Wind". "Which", Levy now says, "was shocking. And once it's in your head, no matter how you shake it, you can't get it out. You try and talk yourself out of it, but it's still there, and if somebody else mentions it: doubly hard to get out of your head." When it comes to the production of "For Your Consideration", Fred Willard, who played Bernie Fockyerdoder in "Date Movie" says, "We've opened a whole new door. "Waiting for Guffman", I don't think there was any outline. "Best in Show", we got about a twelve-page outline. "Mighty Wind" is about a sixteen-page outline. This time we had make-up sessions, camera testing like back in the old days of Hollywood, hairstyle meetings, and rehearsals. This time it's like a real movie." In fact Guest and Levy provided their expanding company of regular actors with a twenty seven page script full of scene set-ups, brief character background sketches, and occasional suggested jokes. They also included a handful of scripted scenes, with songs, for the film within the film, "Home for Purim", and several entertainment news television shows." And that's the catch. "For Your Consideration" is actually two films in one. The making of an Awards bait low budget movie, "Home for Purim", which has attracted a group of very committed artists coupled to the narrative, punctuated with scenes from this film within the film as they are shot in real time by the cast and crew of "Home for Purim", as played by the cast of "For Your Consideration", which is being filmed by Guest’s real crew. So where did the fanciful notion for the setting of "Home For Purim" come from? "The idea of setting it in Valdosta, Georgia, came from an experience that Chris had where he was working in one of the southern states and ran into some Jewish people who were using Yiddish words with a southern dialect,"says Levy (who plays Morley Orfkin, the hapless agent of one of Purim’s leads, Victor Allan Miller). "It just sounded funny, so we said, 'Let's set it in Georgia and make it a period piece.' The story is about the kids coming home to see their mother who is dying on Purim, which has always been an important holiday for the mother. That holiday is fun because you get to do costumes and things, and we just saw it as a funny little scenario around a dining room table." Creating the right feel for the Purim segments required more structure and authentic period sets and wardrobe. "The set is fantastic," says acclaimed producer, director, actor, and writer Bob Balaban, who, along with Robert Altman and David Levy, produced the Academy Award winner "Gosford Park". To me it's the essence of Christopher Guest movies. Yes, it's funny, but it's not funny because anybody's exaggerating something. It's just funny by tilting it a few degrees. It kind of looks like Donna Reed lived there." The writers set "Home For Purim" in the 1940's. "It's this 1940s drama and it is insane," says Rachael Harris. "It's like an old Bette Davis-Joan Crawford movie," says Harris, who plays Debbie Gilchrist, another member of the Purim cast. "The movie is so heightened and melodramatic," says Lucille Lortel Award winner Parker Posey, who plays Purim character, Callie Webb. "They don't make movies like that anymore. So I was like actresses in the '30s and '40s. They were all kind of butch, when it was okay for women to smoke and be independent and really assert themselves and be fiery that way." Jim Piddock (who plays Purim’s British cinematographer, Simon Whitset) notes, "The delivery of some of those lines is just outstanding. That's a real talent to be able to do bad acting, and it takes really good actors to be able to do it." Posey also explained that, "A lot of independent movies have some kind of message; there's some kind of political angle or someone's mentally handicapped, that draws actors to these parts. And in "Home for Purim", it's almost like a heightened, condensed version of those kind of movies with a message." Playing multiple roles did produce some 'moments' for the cast members. "It's just hard to keep everybody straight, you know?" says Harris. "Like, 'Who are you right now? Are you Catherine or are you Marilyn? Or are you Esther?' So it's just ridiculous, everybody going in and out of character constantly." Piddock says he often experienced similar confusion. "There was a time when Chris started laughing at something I said. And I was like, 'Was that Chris the director, or Jay Berman the director?' I still don't know, actually. It was one of them." When it comes to casting, it seems working with Christopher Guest is the big attraction. "People really love working for him in front of a camera because they will never get the chance to have this kind of freedom anywhere," Eugene Levy explained. "And Chris is one of the most brilliant creative comedic minds that I have ever met." Willard whose recent stage production "Fred Willard: Alone at Last!" received two Los Angeles Artistic Director Awards for Best Comedy and Best Production notes, "It all starts with Christopher's attitude and sense of humor. He and Eugene get together and that's a lethal combination. Why? "Both are the driest, funniest people. And it filters down," he said. "He gives us really tasty stuff," says Jane Lynch, who plays Cindy Martin, the co-host of "Hollywood Now". Much hailed writer and star of TV touchstones "The Office" and "Extras", 2003 O.K. Comedy Award winner Ricky Gervais (who next role would be as Dr McPhee in "Night At The Museum"), was a rookie on "For Your Consideration. "The prospect of working with Christopher Guest was irresistible," he says. "I don't usually do projects that aren't my own, but there are some things you don't say no to. Working with the team that brought us "Spinal Tap", which may be the best comedy film of all time; it's incredible. He's a comedy hero to me. The single biggest influence on my comedy, living person, is probably Christopher Guest." So did Ricky (winner of two Golden Globes, six BAFTAs, four British Comedy Awards and the prestigious American award The Peabody) feel like a rookie? "It did feel like I was the new kid at school," Gervais said. "There was a fear that they would, you know, bully me and put my head down the toilet and steal my lunch money. But they didn't. They were very welcoming. I was nervous that I'd muck up. Everyone's so good. Everyone's natural. Everyone's funny. It's daunting because you get to the point where you think, Oh, I can't add to this. I can only make this film slightly worse." In the end, most will ask, are they really taking the piss out of the industry? "We're giving it a very light, funny approach. We're not zinging the business here. We're just having fun with it as people who are in the business," Levy says. Independent Spirit Award nominee Parker Posey says, "It's a luxury and a curse to be carried away with something. All of his movies have that kind of carried-away feeling, people who get really caught up with their passions. There's a lot of heartbreak and humor in them because they're very intense and serious about what they believe." Actor Jim Piddock summed it up beautifully. "It's about a group of people who are aspiring to something way beyond their means, believing in it wholeheartedly, and falling short. It is about us, the average person, trying to strive for something that we have no right to be striving for." The Verdict "Christopher Guest, the master of mockumentry and cutting, hilarious mockumentaries, returns to the big screen with "For Your Consideration", this time sending up the most hallowed awards process in the world of cinema, the annual Academy Awards. Guest's latest film is one which is sure to leave a wry smile on many face of many a savvy cinemagoer as they exit the theatre. While it's not as outrageously funny as "Best In Show" or "A Mighty Wind", it's fair to say that if you get Guest's drift and the subtlety of the twisting storyline, you'll find this a very funny film. 4 STARS." Cast & Crew Bytes "FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION" stars .......
Eugene Levy ["American Pie 1, 2 & 3", "Bringing Down the House", "The Man" and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2"]; Jennifer Coolidge ["American Pie 1, 2 & 3", "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events", "Click" and "Epic Movie"]; Parker Posey ["The Sweetest Thing", "Laws of Attraction", "Blade: Trinity" and "Superman Returns"]; Bob Balaban ["Gosford Park", "The Majestic", "Capote" and "Lady in the Water"]; Fred Willard ["50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle", "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" and "Date Movie"], Christopher Moynihan ["A Mighty Wind"]; Christopher Guest ["A Piano for Mrs Cimino", "The Princess Bride", "A Few Good Men" and "Mrs Henderson Presents"] and Catherine O'Hara ["Home Alone", "Wyatt Earp", "A Mighty Wind", "Surviving Christmas" and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"] as Marilyn Hack.
"FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION" was .......
directed by Christopher Guest ["The Big Picture", "Waiting for Guffman", "Best In Show" and "A Mighty Wind"]; screenplay by Christopher Guest ["Waiting for Guffman", "Spinal Tap: The Final Tour", "Best In Show" and "A Mighty Wind"] and Eugene Levy ["Waiting for Guffman", "Best In Show" and "A Mighty Wind"]; cinematography by Roberto Schaefer ["Waiting for Guffman", "Best in Show", "Monster's Ball" and "Finding Neverland"]; costume design by Durinda Wood ["Take This Job and Shove It", "The Seventh Sign", "The Vanishing", "Educating Mom" and "Almost Heroes"]; production design Joseph T Garrity ["The Big Picture", "Waiting for Guffman", "Speaking of Sex" and "Raise Your Voice"]; and produced by Karen Murphy ["This Is Spinal Tap", "Drugstore Cowboy", "Twenty Bucks" and "Spinal Tap: The Final Tour"]. Run Time minutes Rated [AUST] Copyright ©2007 - Warner Independant Films - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2007 - Impact Internet Services - All Rights Reserved