The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers Details

The makers of this biopic have set themselves an enormous challenge in fashioning a dramatic feature about one of British cinema's most familiar figures. Many of his movies are classics, readily available for comparison with the attempts to re-create them here; many of the supporting characters are celebrities, who are still very much alive. That the picture is so engaging owes much to an Oscar-worthy performance by Geoffrey Rush, who plays Peter Sellers as a volatile and selfish man struggling for a personality beyond his comic creations. The film begins with Sellers already at the height of his radio success with The Goons, and it concentrates on his relationship with put-upon first wife Anne (Emily Watson) and his stormy second marriage to Britt Ekland (Charlize Theron). Essentially it's an old-fashioned, overstuffed (though his two later marriages are jettisoned) biography, however the production benefits from inspired touches — such as having Rush as Sellers impersonate other characters when they offer an opinion on the man.

A biopic of Peter Sellers that provides an opportunity for a bravura performance from Geoffrey Rush that emphasizes Sellers' unpleasant personal behaviour; the narrative complexities would have been better served by a less hectic directorial approach.