PETER SELLERS LIVES AGAIN HBO produces winner

Even an empty vessel can be filled beyond its capacity..
By ED BARK
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
We may never see a better show biz "biopic" than HBO's amazingly inventive, impeccably acted, incisively surreal "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers."
Sold yet?
HBO could use a little buzz after September's big Emmy haul segued to fall's little-watched, less talked-about Sunday night lineup of "The Wire" and "Family Bonds." Geoffrey Rush's bravura performance and Stephen Hopkins' flawless direction make "Life and Death of Peter Sellers" a must-see film for anyone in the mood to witness a landmark achievement.
It's simply magnificent, from the "What's New, Pussycat" cartoon opening to a final shot of Sellers as a mute, empty vessel standing motionless in the snow.
He died age at 54 in 1980, felled by a heart attack after making everlasting impressions in "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," "Being There" and the Inspector Clouseau movies.
The HBO film picks up his life in the mid-1950s, with the then-30-ish Sellers gainfully but restlessly employed as a member of The Goons, a wacky, popular British radio troupe.
Both spoiled and spindled by his dwarfish "mum" Peg (Miriam Margoyles), Sellers laments being merely a "ringmaster in a circus of twits." She upbraids him for acting like a milquetoast before sweet-talking her only boy. He's then emboldened to audition a second time -- this time disguised as an old man -- for a role in "The Ladykillers." A star is soon born, although seldom if ever a truly happy one.
Character flaws
Sellers' wife, Anne (Emily Watson), and their two children are on the receiving ends of his tortured, mercurial temperament. He's a raging tyrant one minute, a thumb-sucking baby the next. He's also a skirt-chaser, pathetically pursuing the beauteous but married Sophia Loren (Sonia Aquino). Rebuffed, he settles for her stand-in while making the forgettable 1960 film, "The Millionairess."
Rush, who won a best actor Oscar for the 1996 film "Shine," consistently is a marvel to behold in various guises. His title role performance is only the beginning. Rush recaptures several of Sellers' signature film characters while also taking brief but important turns as Peg, Anne and "Dr. Strangelove" director Stanley Kubrick, who otherwise is played by Stanley Tucci.
In a scene that should be required viewing in film classes across the land, Rush as Kubrick discourses on the elemental Sellers:
"Eliminate the personal element and you can get so much more done. This was a realization Peter Sellers never had to face because there was no person there to begin with. He was a vessel into which characters and personalities ran like phantoms. But even an empty vessel can become too full."
Sellers became a mega-star under the direction of Blake Edwards (John Lithgow), whom he repeatedly and gleefully demeaned as the hack who transformed him into bumbling Inspector Clouseau. He yearned to be a virile ladies' man, and for a brief time he was with glamorous actress Britt Ekland (Charlize Theron), his second wife.
The night of his marriage proposal is spectacularly reprised, with a full orchestra playing "You Make Me Feel So Young" on a hotel suite balcony while he brandishes an engagement ring.
Mum is not pleased.
Strange couple
"Why are you making the same mistake all over again?" she asks at the wedding reception.
"Because they won't let me marry you," he says.
"Life and Death of Peter Sellers" consistently trumps itself with one wondrous scene after another. Director Hopkins, who helmed the pilot episode of Fox's "24" series, has a less-than-stellar list of feature film credits, including "Predator 2, Lost in Space" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child." But he's a brilliant maestro this time out, blending the offbeat and the straight-ahead without missing a beat.
For literal hit-over-the-head symbolism, savor the scene in which an infuriated Britt Ekland clubs her husband with his mother's picture. He's left wearing the frame around his neck while an all-seeing black-and-white photo of his recently deceased mum looks up at him from the floor.
Rush is a surefire Emmy winner in multiple roles that on paper must have seemed beyond challenging. He conquers them all and emerges triumphant in a film of thrilling derring-do. HBO's bragging rights are back in business.