【Quite a Biography】
Though I love movies of all kinds, I missed a lot of the movies that were considered the greats when I was growing up.!!
My parents were very strict and television during the week was a no-no, and movies had to be pre-approved by them.
That leaves me playing catch up in my movie-watching experience.
I can’t begin to convey the look of shock and dismay on the boy’s face when he pulled out The Life and Death of Peter Sellers only to discover I’d never seen a single film starring Peter Sellers.
That’s right, flog me now. I’ve never seen The Pink Panther.
To tell you the truth, this movie sat at the bottom of the pile and I thought it would be returned to the library unviewed, until the fates stepped in.
Had they just cut out 20 minutes or so of the 122 minute runtime, I would be giving this a higher rating.
As it stands, both the boy and I started looking at our watches about two-thirds of the way through, getting antsy.
The movie starts out with Peter Sellers as an adult, barely making ends meet as a radio personality.
His wife Anne urges him to try other things when the jump to movies doesnt quite land, but his mother Peg won’t let him give up on his dreams.
She follows him upstairs at one point to reprimand him for becoming a “nappy-changing radio man.”
After that, he goes back into a casting agent’s office who had previously rejected him, this time dressed as an 80 year-old war veteran, and nails the part.
For any fan of Peter Sellers, don't go in watching this movie with a favorable attitude.
The filmmakers and Geoffrey Rush pull no punches bringing Sellers to the screen as a rather unpleasant guy with inner torment.
I don't know whether to call it a cynical viewpoint of Peter Sellers, or a simple biography possibly fabricated to provide real drama.
But it does work as a biographical movie, as told by a terrific actor who brings the sense of darkness to a guy, who brought happiness to millions of others.★★★★★