FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Movie (2006), 86 min
Director: Christopher Guest
Screenplay: Christopher Guest, Eugene Levy

Christopher Guest, in his so-called mockumentaries, has a way of taking some minor slice-of-life drama and blowing it up to full-scale satire, as when he followed the denizens of a small town playing in a community production (“Waiting for Guffman”). Guest doesn’t exactly make fun of small people. He just puts them up there on the screen in all their absurd, vainglorious reality and, in the course of things, gets many laughs out of me, along with a sense of recognition. I’ve known all his people, somewhere.

“For Your Consideration” felt different from Guest’s earlier movies. It seemed almost a parody of itself, in that the screenwriters dragged out all the satirical clichés of Hollywood filmmaking: The agent (Levy, as Morley) who ignores the client until the client is rumored to be up for an Academy award. The director (Guest, as Jay Berman) leading his actors in a circle to get them thinking together (or something). The talented, experienced character actress (Catherine O’Hara as Madeleine) grasping for recognition against all odds and blossoming when she thinks maybe she’ll be nominated for an Oscar. The interfering story consultant who wants the film being made within the film and titled “Home for Purim” to be broadened to reach a wider audience, meaning switching “Thanksgiving” for “Purim” in the title. We’ve seen all this before.

But we haven’t seen Christopher Guest do it, and his hand with an ensemble cast is sure. The totally corny “Home for Thanksgiving” scenes are played out soap-opera style, with Yiddish tradition decorating the table, and Berman directs the players in a giving way, but is always in control of what he’s getting out of them.

When Madeleine hears that there’s Internet buzz about her role, her efforts to find out more are simultaneously sad and hopeful. Could she really get nominated? She asks one of the film crew to look on the Internet for her, “just if you have time, it’s nothing big,” while we know it’s bigger than big, it’s everything. In a 30-year career she’s had little recognition, and one of the film-within-the-film screenwriters patronizingly suggests it’s time to teach. But Madeleine is onto the buzz, moreso as two other actors also get mentioned as “possibles.” The film picks the art of hype and pre-awards spin into tiny pieces and spits out all of them in an angrier way than Guest usually treats things.

This isn’t my favorite Guest picture (that would be “Waiting for Guffman” or maybe “A Mighty Wind,” which spoofed the folk-music world I loved in the 60s). Still, it’s fun to see all these people trying so hard to get somewhere. It’s also sad to watch as ambitions evaporate even as the actors try to pump up the steam. Dreams die hard, these actors seem to tell us; but life would be pretty stupid if we gave them up completely.