Rating: Country: USA Release Date: February 20, 2007 Distributor: Warner Home Video Director: · Christopher Guest Cast: · Catherine O'Hara · Harry Shearer · Christopher Moynihan · Parker Posey · John Michael Higgins · Eugene Levy · Bob Balaban · Michael McKean Related Sites: · IMDb: For Your Consideration Grade: A-

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Hollywood gets a self-deprecating poke in the nose by the comic troupe behind such films as "A Mighty Wind" and "Waiting for Guffman" in "For Your Consideration". Christopher Guest's film centers around an independent film production company, Sunfish Classics, and their current work in progress, "Home for Purim".

Leading their cast is Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) and Victor Allen Miller (Harry Shearer), who play veteran actors now playing the parents of a Mayberry/Jewish family during WWII. Christopher Moynihan plays actor Brian Chubb, who takes the role of their son home from the navy, while Parker Posey plays Callie Webb, whose "Purim" role is that of estranged daughter Rachel, home to announce she has fallen in love with another woman.

It's hard not to get caught up in the faux plot of "Home for Purim", outrageous as it is. But the real melodrama occurs in the real world of corporate suits, frustrated writers, slick-as-oil agents, and know-nothing producers. When an anonymous Internet poster declares that his on-set visit has put him of a mind that Hack should be considered for an Oscar for her role in "Home for Purim", it starts a snowball effect in Tinseltown, where speculation and rumor carry more currency than actual performance value. Soon, the tabloid papers and morning talk shows are interviewing Hack, Miller, and Webb, who suddenly find themselves all rumored to be up for an Academy Award nomination. The only one left out of all the hype and hubbub is Chubb, who ends his relationship with Webb at the height of all the hooplah.

 

Eugene Levy does an excellent job of playing Eugene Levy (as he always does, this time using the name Morley Orfkin and portraying Miller's agent, generally finding him work in radio spots and infomercials. Michael McKean and Bob Balaban team together as the defensive writers, and Christopher Guest himself plays the actor-pandering director of "Home for Purim". The comedy is subtle, yet biting, and comes less from the lines that are delivered than from the way the characters deliver them.

Home for Purim The movie within a movie. (L-R: Christopher Moynihan, Catherine O'Hara, Harry Shearer, Parker Posey)