For Your Consideration
| For Your Consideration | |
 Promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Christopher Guest |
| Produced by | Karen Murphy |
| Written by | Christopher Guest Eugene Levy |
| Starring | Catherine O'Hara Harry Shearer Parker Posey Eugene Levy Christopher Moynihan Rachael Harris Christopher Guest Ricky Gervais |
| Music by | Christopher Guest Eugene Levy CJ Vanston |
| Cinematography | Roberto Schaefer |
| Edited by | Robert Leighton |
| Distributed by | Warner Independent Pictures |
| Release Dates |  9 February 2007  22 November 2006
|
| Running Time | 86 min. |
| Country |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $12 million |
| IMDB Profile | |
For Your Consideration is a 2006 comedy from Christopher Guest. The film revolves around three actors (played by Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, and Harry Shearer) who learn that their performances in the film Home for Purim, a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz. The film also features appearances by Jennifer Coolidge, John Krasinski, Larry Miller, and Ricky Gervais
Plot
Contains SPOILERS
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 an 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 and he is virtually left in the dark.
At this point studio executives, played by Ricky Gervais and Larry Miller, 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 youthful attire with capped teeth, a tan and dyed blonde hair. 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 (after an explosive rant on live TV) becomes an acting teacher. Miller goes back to auditioning for food commercials, and other infomercials. Webb revives her failed one-woman show No Penis Intended.
Cast
- Catherine O'Hara as Marilyn Hack
- Ed Begley Jr. as Sandy Lane
- Eugene Levy as Morley Orfkin
- Harry Shearer as Victor Allan Miller
- Christopher Guest as Jay Berman
- John Michael Higgins as Corey Taft
- Jim Piddock as Simon Whitset
- Jennifer Coolidge as Whitney Taylor Brown
- Parker Posey as Callie Webb
- Rachael Harris as Debbie Gilchrist
- Christopher Moynihan as Brian Chubb
- Paul Dooley as Paper Badge Sgt.
- John Krasinski as Paper Badge Officer
- Don Lake as "Love It" critic Ben Lilly
- Michael Hitchcock as "Hate It" critic David van Zyverdan
- Sandra Oh as Marketing Person
- Richard Kind as Marketing Person
- Bob Balaban as Philip Koontz
- Michael McKean as Lane Iverson
- Ari Graynor as Young PA
- Fred Willard as Chuck
- Jane Lynch as Cindy
- Mary McCormack as Pilgrim Woman
- Shawn Christian as Pilgrim Man
- Deborah Theaker as Liz Fenneman
- Ricky Gervais as Martin Gibb
- Larry Miller as Syd Finkleman
- Craig Bierko as Talk Show Host
- Loudon Wainwright as Nominee Ben Connelly
- Claire Forlani as Herself
- Hart Bochner as Himself
- Casey Rose Wilson as The Young Actress
Connections
- Christopher Guest returned the favor to Gervais by making a cameo appearance in his directorial debut The Invention of Lying.
- Christopher Guest appeared on the show Ricky Gervais Meets where Gervais told him that his film Spinal Tap helped inspire the mockumentary style of The Office
- John Krasinski of The Office (US Series) also makes a cameo appearance in the film.
Trivia
- The film's title comes from a phrase used in trade advertisements to promote films for awards such as the Academy Awards, so when the film was given to voters it would have said, "For your consideration: For Your Consideration"
- This is the fourth film written and directed by Christopher Guest, but is the first to break from the mockumentary style.
- Catherine O'Hara achieved her plastic surgery look in the film by facial expressions only, without the use of makeup or prosthetics.