How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love Peter Sellers
Out and about this weekend, to see The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, with Geoffrey Rush, followed by dinner at the Green Gourmet, a vegan restaurant, serving both a la carte and buffet, where we had a very nice meal and got home in time to watch, God help us, Australian Idol, which was terrible (they’re all pretty much good singers, but what execrable taste), and Regency House Party’s conclusion, which was enjoyable, if especially for how surprisingly seriously everyone was taking his or her role. Poor Mr. Fox-Smith. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Rush continues to impress me as a harbringer of worthwhile cinematic experiences, because he’s always good, and the movies he’s in are either equally good or at least entertaining (if it’s Pirates of the Caribbean, anyway, or Intolerable Cruelty). He is a terrific character actor who could easily carry the lead role, but seems much more interested in doing the work, rather than where his name appears in the titles. In Peter Sellers he not only does the work and carry the lead, he also plays a number of the other characters in nice bits of cinematic business that add to the film’s exposition of a very troubled man’s life. I think he even does Kubrick better than the actor hired for the role.