Review of The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) by Simon P — 17 Sep 2006

I have seen The Life and Death of Peter Sellers three times now. It was a movie that I originally wanted to see when it first came out on the cinema. Unfortunately my damn cinema showed it once a day for three days at 11pm! So unfortunately I was forced to miss the poor movie and wait anxiously for it to arrive in a rental shop near me. The day it was released I went out, got my cpy and went home to see whether the movie lived up to the extremely high expectations that I had. Now let me back track slightly, many of you are probably now questioning as to why I was just so damn excited about the movie. Well Peter Sellers has always been one of my all time favourite comedians, The Pink Panther, Dr Strangelove and loads of other had me completely creased up throughout. And yet, the man has always been extremely intriguing as well. He was an enigma, a strange and deeply disturbed man that hid behind the many characters that he created. Despite his success he was never happy and always wanting greater things. Because of this the actual movie intrigued me, the fact that Geoffery Rush was playing Peter Sellers just made me all the more excited. So I have seen it three times now, once when I rented it, twice when my gran bought it and I sat and watched it again and finally when it came on TV two days ago. So was this movie a success in my eyes or a nasty flop?

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers chronicles the mans life from his old radio show to his death. In the movie we see him leave his first wife for an imaginary relationship with Sofia Loren, remarry Britt Eckland, the death of his father, his ludicrous introduction to the character Inspector Clouseau and the mans unfortunate demise until his saddening death. The story of Peter Sellers is quite a sad and tragic one really when you look at it. The man clearly did have problems, problems that root back to his parentage. His mother Peg told Peter from a young age that he was going to be great. When Peter got his taste of success it began to get to him. He immediately wanted to be greater and greater, he was always his harshest critic and could never see the good in his brilliant performances. His personal relationships began to crack as well, in one scene after Peter's son has wrecked his car he goes upstairs and destroys all of his sons toys in front of him! Peter divorces his wife just so he can go off with Sofia Loren who in turn wanted nothing to do with Peter. But we also see the mans frustration with all of the work he was getting. He despised the role of Inspector Clouseau despite being a genious at it, he felt under extreme pressure playing all of the main roles in Dr Strangelove and felt trapped by all of the character he was playing. When he got round to going in Casino Royale all he wanted to do was play the role straight, unfortunately the moviemakers wanted him to be the clown. We see Peter's life go on a downward spiral as he is offered numerous Pink Panther sequels when all he wants to do is to do a role that he will trully be remembered for apart from being the clown.

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a trully, brilliant movie. While it of course never really gets to the root of Peter Sellers (I doubt anyone will actually ever do this), but they giv it a damn good try. The movie works on so many levels, the film is dramatic and extremely sad (especially the later scenes that can bring you close to tears) and also can be extremely funny as you would expect from the great Peter Sellers. A scene where Sellers does a Clouseau performance on a plane is easily something that could have been taken from the Pink Panther movies. But of course the movie revolves around one man, Geoffery Rush and his amazing performance as Peter Sellers. It is a true shame that this was only screen on TV in America, had it have been released cinematically than Geoffery Rush easily could have been in the front seat for an Oscar. The man literally does Peter Sellers to perfection, scenes where we see Geoffery Rush starring in the Pink Panther and Dr Strangelove just look so damn realistic its unreal. The man can play the clown so well and also does the saddening side perfectlly well as well. The final scenes before his death are heartwrenching and had me on the verge of tears. The supporting cast are also used particularly well despite a few castmembers being unfortunately wasted.

So then, does this movie have any faults at all? Well the movie does feel a bit long in places and it is a deep shame that Stanley Tucci doesn't have more time as Stanley Kubrick. But apart from that it is a real treat of a movie and one that I think is unfortunately overlooked. If you have a chance then I do highly recommend this movie and I think it is easily one of the best movies of the past decade.