Being There DVD > Reviews

Advantages: Great performances, great story
Disadvantages: -

...is as close to pure being and a human being can be. Unspoilt by intellect, education, or experience of society, Chance the Gardener has been raised in a protective environment where he main concern is for plants, other living things coming close to simple being, and for a mindless attentiveness to the television that washes over him like a halo, providing him with sufficient information to make others around him believe he is wise and knowledgeable. In ... Read review

Advantages: A touching, subtle, satire, with wonderful characterisation by Sellers.
Disadvantages: If it's car chases, explosions, SFX, CGIs, or murders you're after look elsewhere.

...play Chance the gardener in Being There, I have realized that ambition, and so I have no more." He died the following year. "Being There" is the story of Chance (Peter Sellers) a simpleton whose naive inanities are mistaken for profound thoughts when he is forced to venture out into the big wide world he has only ever seen on television. Sellers wanted to make this film from the moment he read Jerzy Kosinski's book in 1971. He identified ... Read review

Advantages: A perfectly understated movie with Sellers shining in top billing
Disadvantages: that Sellers so rarely made films of this quality

...there is half the fun; being there is all of it! ... Read review

Advantages: Shear Innocent Delight
Disadvantages: somewhere I expect

I'm afraind I'm not summerising this film in my review. If you want to know the plot, watch the film. My review is purely about the effect it has on me... -*-*- I love this film, Peter Sellers plays Chancey Gardner (aka Chance the Gardner), a pure innocent who has spent his 40+ year life in the seclusion of a walled garden with only the company of the Old Man, the house owner; and the owners maid. When the old man dies, Chance is forced to leave ... Read review