Review of The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) by Will T — 03 Sep 2009

Peter Sellers holds a perennial place amongst the greatest actors of our time, rivaling only Charles Chaplin in his ability to portray the human comedy as vividly and as hysterically as possible without relieving his character from being true and connecting with the audience. So it's no surprise that Stephen Hawkins decided to make a biopic about his work. And who should he chose to portray the famous, iconic late Peter Sellers? None other than Geoffrey Rush, a masterful actor who, besides being able to imitate Sellers extraordinarily, looks like Sellers a great deal too.

Like any biopic, the film follows our lead character Peter Sellers as he progresses from being a simple radio voice-over in funny ads to a big screen international sensation, and along the way, the film digs deep into Sellers' subconscious (as it were), ergo revealing the so-called "truth" behind the polyphacetic actor who revealed a great many personalities unto the world but chose to hide his own.

Geoffrey Rush is, of course, perfect in his role. I mean, you should see him do Dr. Strangelove or Inspector Clousseau. He's hysterical! And even if he's not imitating Sellers to a tee, he really does channel Sellers body and soul, giving what I believe to be one of his best performaces. We see how Sellers was lovingly bred by a materialist mother (Miriam Margolyes) who taught him to 'climb high', grasp success and shun anything that may come between him and his limelight- whether it be his wife (Emily Watson, in a perfectly-played role too), his kids or his sanity.

Although...when it comes to sanity per se, I can't be sure Sellers himself was "sane", with the full meaning of the word. You see him as an overgrown child, impersonating each and every one of his meaningful acquaintances, and merging with the fictional characters he's played before to a point where we discover the "true" Sellers doesn't have a personality, but merely adapts.

The film is not funny by itself (why, I may even go as far as declaring it to be dramatic entirely), but it rather absorbs its comedy from Sellers' most memorable comedy performances. And it gives us a nice behind-the-scenes look at how he worked closely with Hollywood's greatest directors, such as Blake Edwards and Stanley Kubrick.

This is, on the whole, a fun film to peruse. It's no "Ray" or "Walk the Line", but it is refreshing and quite interesting. I mean, who wouldn't want to see a biopic about an A-list star who possibly had multiple personality disorder?

Rating: 3 stars out of 4!!