Film
Selling the unpleasantness of Sellers
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THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS (15) 126min coo.
Beginning in the mid 19505 when Peter Sellers was already an established radio star, this US funded biopic follows this irascible, vain and exceedingly selfish man’s life through bad marriages and sparkling success. There’s also the wanton superstition (ably supported by the licentious Spiritualist Maurice Woodruff gamely played by Stephen Fry), bad parenting and health-destroying hedonism.
Director Stephen Hopkins and screenwriter Christoper Markus (who has just adapted CS Lewis‘ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for the big screen) gamble on using a theatrical device throughout the film that is supposed to underline the fact (again and again) that Sellers had no personality of his own. Luckily, in the hands of the lead actor Geoffrey Rush, it just about works, but there is no hiding the fact that The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is flawed in many ways (Spike Milligan doesn’t even get to talk), but it ultimately stands or falls by its cast. Luckily, they are phenomenal. From Emily Watson‘s beleaguered Anne Sellers to Charlize Theron’s wide eyed Britt Ekland and Stanley Tucci's Kubrick, they are all fantastic.
Much has been made of Hopkins’ epiphany while making the first episode of TV drama 24 that he had spent his life making shite movies (Judgement Night, Blown Away) and this is indeed the first film he has made since then so signs are good. But his redemption may have more to do with his casting agent than he will ever know. (Paul Dale)
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30 THE LIST 8-1-
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