Peter Sellers receives a fittingly amusing and hollow biopic in The Life
And Death Of Peter Sellers. Geoffrey Rush stars as the infamous British
comic, who brought laughter to millions with radio's The Goon Show and
the Pink Panther movies, but proved spoilt, brattish and hateful in his
private life: beating his wives and forever throwing tantrums. This
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ/HBO Films co-production leaves out many of his excesses and yet he
still appears unpleasant, with Rush adding humanity while never quite
making us care.
The Shine star excels in the movies-within-the-movies moments, whether
dressed as bolshy shop stewart Fred Kite in I'm All Right Jack, or
hitting upon the inspiration for the clutz Inspector Clouseau (from the
look of this hilarious, plane-set scene, the makers of Steve Martin's
remake of The Pink Panther should have cast the Aussie to star). The
problem comes in playing a performer who, for all his genius comic
timing, was rarely emotionally involving; a man who once said, "There
used to be a me behind the mask but I had it surgically removed."
"UNSETTLING AND EMOTIONALLY ALIENATING"
Just how do you illuminate and explore a life of someone often said to
have had no personality? Director Stephen Hopkins does, ultimately,
appear to accept that there is no explaining the person; certainly not
in film - where you can only cram in so many of the life-changing
incidences that make up a man. Sellers' childhood, for instance, is
ignored here, as are his early days as a stand-up, with the
screenwriters spanning from the Goons until near his death, from a heart
attack, aged 54.
What is effectively dealt with is his unhealthily close relationship to
his mother, his monstrous selfishness and chameleonic ability - with Rush
chatting to the camera, at points, dressed as other key characters in
Sellers' life (his first wife, his mum). This proves involving,
unsettling, and emotionally alienating; it's hard to care about anyone
here. But if we are supposed to enter the psyche of Sellers, maybe
that's the point.
The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers (2004)
