The Life and Death of Peter Sellers

Geoffrey Rush leads the all-star cast as Sellers, all mercurial temperament and cruelty. The movie's chief tic is having Sellers step out of frame, and imitate the people in his life with the aid of wigs and costumes, addressing shrewd comments to us in their personae. It irritatingly undermines the off-camera reality in which we're supposed to be taking an interest and in any case misunderstands the point of Sellers' impersonations and wacky voices. They enabled him to escape from real life and demonstrated his emotional autism and lack of insight into other people and into himself.

John Lithgow does a decent job as the Panther director Blake Edwards, descending into weary unhappiness in tandem with Sellers, and Rush is perhaps the only possible casting as the lead. They cannot, however, inject life into this superficial and unsatisfying film.