Wednesday

I've never quite got the humour of Christopher Guest's movies (except This is Spinal Tap). I suppose they are what you should call 'black comedies'. The humour is implicit, subtle, and the characters themselves are unaware of it. I find some of the jokes funny, but not enough to make me laugh out loud. At best, a slight chuckle is emitted. But I have watched his movies with other people who have been laughing outrageously. Is it, then, just me? Whatever the case, For Your Consideration has definite failings in areas other than its humour. The whole thing is quite rambling. Yes, there are some good moments, and some good characters, but it's not a very consistent or complete film. The situation itself isn't that funny, and a film about film has been done before. I always think that in a comedy, whilst there has to be a lot of good jokes, you have to find the basic situation itself consistently funny. This just isn't the case here. That said, I was mildly chuckling more than most people in the cinema (the Screen on Baker Street). It was amusing, but not as funny as I, and probably the director too, thought it should have been.