jhsteel Geoffrey Rush is phenomenal as every character played by Peter Sellers in his varied career. The sad story of a man who effectively lost his personality in the characters he assumed is brought to life and it was convincing. I remember feeling sad when Sellers died, but at the same time I saw in his final TV interview that he wasn't able to express who he was. This was evoked very well by this film. It is tragic in many ways but realistic. He was a comedy genius and films like Dr Strangelove could not have been made without him. Peter Sellers' early comedies are also well worth revisiting.I enjoyed the movie and I'm glad i made the effort to see it. All the cast were wonderful and looked like the people they were playing.

l_rawjalaurence THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLERS has a lot going for it - a superlative performance by Geoffrey Rush in the name part, a cleverly recreated ambiance of Fifties and Sixties Britain, and a clutch of good supporting performances, especially from Miriam Margolyes and Peter Vaughan as his parents and Charlize Theron as Britt Ekland.Nonetheless Stephen Hopkins's film offers a superficial account of the life of a radio comic turned film star who never quite grew up. This is partly due to the assumption that Sellers was an iconic figure of the Sixties; hence many of the sequences of his life are staged in parody-Sixties style full of garish colors and tricksy cinematography. The truth is that Sellers would have made his name in any historical period, on account of his phenomenal talent for comedy. His main shortcoming was an inability to separate his private and public lives; he always had to be giving a performance, even when at home with his first wife Anne (Emily Watson). Director Hopkins communicates this aspect of his character extremely well, especially during a sequence in a smashed-up living-room where he protests his undying love for her, after having had her followed by private detectives in a London street.The film captures the role-playing aspect of Sellers's life by having Rush play all the people closest to the comedian (Anne, his mother, Stanley Kubrick) in short sequences addressed direct to camera. These offer Sellers the opportunity to rewrite history; to retell his life according to how he wanted it, rather than how it actually happened. This represents another aspect of his childlike personality; he could never accept that people wanted to live their own lives in their own ways, without necessarily kow-towing to his wishes. His father Bill (Peter Vaughan) offers a classic example; a mild-mannered but henpecked husband who never got the chance to tell Sellers how much he loved him.There are some historical inaccuracies in the film: the GOON SHOW sequence is especially inept, with a studio audience laughing hysterically to order, on the directions of a stage manager. Hopkins has little or now idea how to recapture the mixture of sheer lunacy and surrealist humor that characterized the show. Sellers's two partners in crime Spike Milligan (Edward Tudor Pole), and Harry Secombe (Steve Pemberton) are colorlessly performed, overlooking the fact that Milligan continued to have a major influence on Sellers's life right up to Sellers's death in 1980.The film wants us to believe that Sellers had no real personality; the roles he played on screen were the roles he liked to assume in real life. I don't buy that idea at all: from Rush's performance it seems that Sellers certainly possessed certain fixed traits, many of which were attributable to his over-protected upbringing. Like a child he reacted impulsively and often violently to any adverse situation; but that mood was followed by one of contrition, as he begged for forgiveness. It was part of his tragedy that he never realized how much hurt he caused people - especially his wives and his friends - and how they really did not want to associate with him any more. He died an isolated figure, the victim of his egotistical personality.

namashi_1 Peter Sellers, the late English comic actor, was one heck of a performer. 'The Party', 'The Pink Panther series', oh, what memories of good-cinema. 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers' is a biopic on this late icon, which is indeed a fine film to watch. Directed by Stephen Hopkins, this biopic also packs in tremendous performances, brilliant cinematography and slick editing. 'The Life and Death of Peter Sellers' is a superb journey, of a man, who made the entire world laugh, but within, was a spoiled-brat. His walk with life is filled with problems, loads of success, inner failure, but eventually redeems through self realization. This biopic rocks, and there are no doubts about that. Stephen Hopkins's direction is fine-framed, while Peter Levy's Cinematography & John Smith's editing, as mentioned are pitch- perfect. Performances are Tremendous: Geoffrey Rush as Peter Sellers, is natural to the core. He proves his range once again, and it's indeed time that people start putting him up into the "Cult Actors' section. John Lithgow as Blake Edwards is astonishing, and looks each bit like him. Charlize Theron as Britt Ekland and Emily Watson as Anne Sellers, are wonderful. Miriam Margolyes as Peg Sellers is good. Stanley Tucci as Stanley Kubrick, does well. On the whole, this biopic salutes the late legend, due to it's near-perfect execution. Strongly Recommended, with Two Thumbs Up!

Gordon-11 This film is about the private life and public life of the famous film actor, Peter Sellers.Geoffrey Rush does a good job impersonating Peter Sellers. It's a challenging role, as it requires him to take up the identity of Pete Sellers and also Peter Sellers' film roles. I am particularly impressed by the scene on the plane, where he acts like the detective from Pink Panther. It is also interesting that "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers" portrays him as a rather unsympathetic, rude, impulsive and emotionally labile person. There is no sugar coating to make him glamorous. Peter Sellers' character portrayal is very good. It makes me dislike this character for his tyrannical ways, and for him throwing his life away through irresponsible choices.