The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

and the winner is: Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush will no doubt win every award available to him in this bravura performance for this BBC/HBO production. Based on the rather tabloid-sleaze biography by Roger Lewis, it presents a portrait of a demented, self-obsessed man who hurts everyone he comes in contact with. Taking into consideration the final facts stated in the film (he left his children $ 2,000.00 apiece) there is probably more truth than one would care to believe in this account of Peter Sellers, which starts with his appearances on The Goon Show, shows his twisted relationship with his mother, the women he abused in various ways, his difficult behavior on the movie sets, and ends during the time of "Being There", the award-winning 1979 film about a gardener who becomes a politician.

Geoffrey Rush is phenomenal as Sellers; and I especially like the scenes when he becomes his mother, as well as Blake Edwards. Rush is made to look somewhat like Sellers, but it is the body language and the verbal...

An engrossing portrait of an unforgettable comic icon
"The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," directed by Stephen Hopkins, looks at the remarkable life of the actor who triumphed in such films as "Dr. Strangelove" and "Being There." The film covers Seller's early days in British radio, his troubled personal life, his marriages, his relationship with his parents, his box office successes, his craftsmanship as a performer, and his relationship with director Blake Edwards. "Life and Death" opens up with a colorfully anarchic animated sequence (done to a swingin' Tom Jones song) and never loses its energy.

It takes a brilliant chameleon to play a brilliant chameleon, and Geoffrey Rush is amazing in the title role. He creates a remarkable portrait as he not only portrays Sellers at different stages of his life, but also recreates some of Sellers' most famous screen roles. Rush is ably supported by a stellar cast that includes Charlize Theron and Emily Watson. In one of the film's most striking motifs, Rush temporarily takes...

The complex, crazy world of Peter Sellers
Who was Peter Sellers? According to Stephen Hopkins film he was anybody his director and public wanted him to be; a little boy trapped in a man's suit who could adopt any persona and "be" that person. Geoffrey Rush gives a brilliant performance as Sellers. Unlike most movies, we see the most important moments in Sellers' life from his perspective; when a traumatic event happens (whether it be his wife saying she's leaving him, his mother dying, etc.) we "see" Sellers become that character and injecting what that moment meant to him. Ultimately, Sellers comes across as a self centered child who could and would become anyone to please those around him.

Hopkins complex but riveting film begins while Sellers is a member of the cast for The Goon Show on radio. Trying to break through to films, Sellers realizes the only way he can land a role that he wants as an elderly, daft gentlement is to show up already in character. Nobody knows who he is and he's immediately offered the...

Click to Editorial Reviews