Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

In many ways this feels less like a proper movie than a pageant patched together from impersonations, some poor (Tucci's Kubrick), some passable (Theron's Britt Ekland may be the best on show), others mute and virtually invisible (Edward Tudor Pole's Milligan). Centre stage, of course, is Rush's almost oppressively virtuoso, but unilluminating, lead turn, lent wobbly support from Margoyles as Sellers' doting/domineering mother Peg. Their rhetorical flourishes cannot conceal the fact that the film as a whole is little more than a string of clichés about the shortcomings of genius: the insecurity, the infidelity, the volatility, the solipsism; in short, the pain inflicted and experienced in the pursuit of art and stardom. From the ugly opening animated credits to the silly end, this superficial, even pretentious film barely connects with its subject or the world he lived in.

Author: GA 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

Cast & crew

Director: Stephen Hopkins

Producer: Simon Bosanquet

Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Charlize Theron, Emily Watson, John Lithgow, Miriam Margolyes, Peter Vaughan, Sonia Aquino, Stanley Tucci, Stephen Fry, Henry Goodman, Alison Steadman, Peter Gevisser, David Robb, Edward Tudor Pole, Steve Pemberton, Nigel Havers full cast

Duration: 126 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.