A new Christopher Guest movie will always be greeted with the same kind of quiet, understated response elicited by early Kevin Smith films and movies like ""Little Miss Sunshine."" Instead of knee-slappers, the staple Guest ensemble creates dry, smart comedies, which are greeted with sharp laughter from their cult following yet rarely understood by those not ready for their effects. All of Guest's films, up until ""For Your Consideration,"" have been mockumentaries.
For whatever reason, Guest decided that it was time to push aside the mockumentary genre and make way for something entirely unrecognizable in his latest film: a sort of post-modern Hollywood satire that, sadly, knows exactly how asinine it is. Unlike its predecessors ""Best in Show"" and ""Waiting for Guffman,"" ""For Your Consideration"" lacks most intelligence and fails to adapt its audience to the alternate Guest reality.
Aside from moving slower than a fat man pushing a wheelbarrow, this film spends more time scrambling for a good plot device than establishing those Guest characters that many know and love.
The great thing about his past films is the large distance he places between cast and audience. His characters always emanate a naA_ve, pathetic edge; however, the mockumentary contains them in a world wholly independent of the audience. This way, the characters make fools of themselves, but they're vulnerable and often quite lovable, in that the documentary format establishes some strange sense of believability.
In ""For Your Consideration,"" there is no documentary format, so the audience is often left feeling uncomfortable, watching idiot characters clunk around in a world that is like ours, only completely ridiculous. Meanwhile, there is a feeling of intrusion, as everything seems like it should be in a documentary, but isn't.
""For Your Consideration"" is about the making of a film titled ""Home for Purim"" and the rumors of Oscar buzz that start taking over the set. ""Home For Purim"" stars veteran B-listers Marilyn Hack (Katherine O'Hara) and Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer). Parker Posey plays supporting actress Callie Webb, a character wholly shadowed by Guest's odd spotlighting of O'Hara. Still, Callie remains the only real human being in what develops into a band of textbook morons. Eugene Levy plays a typical Hollywood agent with expensive glasses and a cell phone, and Christopher Guest has about eighteen lines as the film's director Jay Berman: a dumb, unoriginal endeavor that pales in comparison to his director character in ""Waiting for Guffman.""
Fred Willard and Jane Lynch provide the only real laughs in ""For Your Consideration"" as hosts of an Entertainment Tonight spoof that periodically interrupts the vapid actions and ideas on the set of ""Home for Purim."" Jennifer Coolidge also provides a few great lines in her role as the dimwitted producer, but as for the rest of the writing, there's nothing actually going on that resembles a story. By the end of the movie there is little resolution, and the epilogue seems useless and laughable in a format other than the mockumentary.
Some may call this a milestone in Guest's career, a branching out of sorts. But branching out only works if the new branch that's growing acts as a bridge to innovation and artistic development. ""For Your Consideration"" may be slightly innovative, but if anything, it is a major step backward for the odd genius of Christopher Guest.
