The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)

Totally unrelated to my occasional humour-bypass, I must confess that I have never really liked Peter Sellers, and the only film of his in my collection is "Doctor Strangelove...".  I'd be hard-pressed to explain why I don't even like the Pink Panther films -- there is just something about his persona (or in his case personae) that I find disturbing.  This US cable/BBC joint production is a good try at filming a biopic and Geoffrey Rush does a very professional job in the lead, but the movie comes nowhere near explaining the man and the insecurities that made him such an unpleasant human being in real life.  One has often heard that Sellers only had a personality in the characters he played and that the man himself was an empty shell.  I don't believe it since it is clear to me that behind the humourous characterizations was a difficult and tormented soul.  Perhaps that explains my own distaste for the actor.  Anyhow this film was well-mounted, reasonably well-cast but fairly spotty in providing a good insight into the man, especially since parts of his story were not included for various legal reasons.  One story-telling ploy which I did find annoying was to have Sellers morph not just into the characters he played, but also into actual people in his life -- hence we had Sellers at various stages playing his father, Blake Edwards, and even his dead mother, where these roles had previously been filled by other actors.  I think this is taking the point about his not being his own man just a wee bit too far.

This will be my last entry for a while as I am reluctantly off to New York again.  But as Arnie said, I will return.  See you then.