This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

BBC Radio personality and family man in 1950s London longs to be a film actor, but can't get his foot in the door (he's not handsome enough); he parlays his talent for disguise into landing his first role, and is soon headlining in British comedies before Hollywood comes calling. BBC Films and HBO could not have picked a better actor to play extraordinarily popular and talented film star Peter Sellers than Geoffrey Rush, who is uncanny in the role. Rush, who also breaks the fourth wall--in disguise as loved ones, as it should be--in delineating the affect Peter had on his family, shows us the insecurities of the man who was most likely afraid he had reached the limits of his talent. He was loyal to the wife and children he left behind when fame consumed him, yet his frightening bursts of temper continually dogged him before and after a major heart attack in the mid-1960s. Rush cannot do much but resurrect our movie-memories when he's playing Sellers as one of his film characters in "The Pink Panther" or "Dr. Strangelove", but he captures the private highs and lows of the man with aplomb. The movie, despite so much material to work from, loses its footing in its final stages, rushing the narrative along to a dull conclusion. Of the supporting performances, Charlize Theron is a terrific Britt Ekland (Sellers' second wife), but John Lithgow as Blake Edwards and Stanley Tucci as Stanley Kubrick come up short. A hit-and-miss biography, though very well-produced and worth-seeing for the star-turn.

The main problem with "The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers" is not unlike that of Sellers himself, as the film portrays him: Failure to decide on what it is.On the one hand, you get a celebration of Sellers' rich career in film comedy, with numerous characters of his popping in and out of the narrative and script references both blatant and subtle to expressions he created. Director Stephen Hopkins even apes the look-and-feels of various periods in Sellers' career.On the other hand, the film also wants to indict Sellers for being a cold narcissist who never had time for family concerns or the ability to look past his ego. Much of this is from the book of the same name by Roger Lewis on which the film was based. Lewis's book was a hatchet job; the film aims to be kinder, but in a perverse way, by presenting us with the same information but ascribing Sellers' failings to a bad mother."You simpering cow," she tells him early on, when he explains to her he may not have the face for a film career. "You want to be a failure like your father? Keep mewling about contentment!"The big plus the film has going for it is Geoffrey Rush's lead performance. He doesn't look much like Sellers early on, and he has trouble with the voice (so did Sellers, though, to the point of once telling a Time reporter he had no idea what he actually sounded like.) But he nails the characterizations and vocal inflections so well you want to look past that, and by the 1970s, when Sellers was roughly of the same age as Rush when he made this film, he not only sounds the part, but looks it, too. Throughout the film, his ability to put on various Sellers' masks reminds you both of Sellers' supreme talent and his labile liability.The script is weak, though; too episodic and concerned with surfaces. By trying to present an overview of Sellers' entire adult life, from his time as a member of the classic "Goon Show" troupe to his last year on earth, the film never settles in on a direction or storyline that captures our interest. If you are a Sellers fan going in, like me, you will enjoy the density of references to various bits of business throughout his career, and enjoy scenes here and there for their inventiveness or likely authenticity. But if you just want to see a biopic of an interesting fellow, you will be as lost as any of Sellers' unfortunate wives before this is over.That does bring up a positive about "Life And Death": Its liveliness. Rush especially keeps things running and jumping, playing several of the other characters at various points by aping the actors playing them. I wasn't impressed by Stanley Tucci as Stanley Kubrick, for example, but found Rush as Tucci as Kubrick hilarious. He's really a terrific mimic, on par with Sellers, even to the point of capturing Sellers' unique physicality and subtle eye movements.But Rush's performance is the one thing in this movie worth seeing, and it's not enough to capture a larger purpose or sense of vision. "Life And Death" is a film that wants to present us the enigma of absence as presence, and only gets the absence part right.

I love Peter Sellers movies and have seen just about all of them that are available--even his really crappy ones (and he made quite a few--especially later in his career). I loved his abilities and characterizations...but I also realize that he was a horrid person off the set...absolutely horrid. So although I was very curious to watch this made for HBO film, I also didn't see a whole lot to surprise me or make me glad I saw it. I already knew he was depressed, angry, insecure and a terrible husband...so why did I watch it, then?! And I think this will be the reaction of many people who are acquainted with the real-life Sellers. And that is the shortcoming of the film--there are no surprises or new insights into this enigmatic man. Also, the film was awfully episodic as it seemed to bounce around too much and would be hard to follow unless you are very familiar with his career. What you are left with is a marvelous performance by Geoffery Rush (for which he deserved and won the Golden Globe) and a high quality production all around. You really can't blame the people who made the film--they seemed to try their best. So I'd sum it all up by saying it was exceptionally well made but not really necessary for most viewers to see it nor is it much fun to watch. It seems to be the sad story of a pathetic jerk and perhaps its best value is as an object lesson to us all.

One can never take a biopic as the last word on a person's life, but "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" is a very good look at one of the screen's great comedians and improvisational artists.It's difficult to compress a life into a couple of hours, and as a result, certain incidents are compressed, and no less than two wives are omitted (though Sellers' last wife, Lynn Frederick, is mentioned at the end).Sellers is portrayed by Geoffrey Rush with complete brilliance. He is as much of a chameleon as Sellers himself was. Here, he is not only Sellers in private life but the film Sellers, recreating scenes in "The Pink Panther," "Casino Royale," and "Dr. Strangelove" magnificently.Director Stephen Hopkins adopts a convention of having Sellers at times play different people of his life - as if he is making a film of it - so in one scene, we see Sellers' mother, and then in the next scene, Sellers is in drag as his mother, during which time, he faces the camera and talks to the audience. In one respect, it's interesting; in another, it hits us over the head with aspects of Sellers' personality, as Sellers takes these moments to talk about himself.The depiction of Sellers as an infantile, spoiled, tantrum-prone "empty vessel" who had fantasies of being a smooth Lothario is doubtless correct. He could be very difficult to work with and had an extremely volatile relationship with many people, including director Blake Edwards. His problems are not uncommon ones in artists. Ambitious, he started off probably happily married with a family, but his wife and children became expendable when big stardom came to him. In the end, he left each of his children the equivalent of $2,000 out of a huge estate. Under British law, this amount meant the children couldn't sue for more money. At the time of his death, he was intending to disinherit his fourth wife. She ended up getting everything, and when she died, quite young, her mother got it all. Kind of a last joke on Sellers.The supporting performances are excellent. Emily Watson does a marvelous job as Sellers' first wife Anne, who probably was closer to him than anyone else and whose photo he always carried; Charlize Theron is gorgeous as Britt Ekland, his second wife. Miriam Margolves is effective as Sellers' pampering mother, and Peter Vaughan is very sympathetic as Sellers' quiet, henpecked father, about whom Sellers had some real regrets. John Lithgow does a great job as Blake Edwards.All in all, well worth seeing for the astonishing performance of Geoffrey Rush as a sad, narcissistic man with a big talent and a massive ego, Peter Sellers.