Director: Hal Ashby
Hal Ashby's Being There apparently won an Oscar for something, but to me it sounds like two lowlife Hollywood producers changed the premise of this film by a tiny bit to make Weekend at Bernie's. Peter Sellers's Chance is a Kaspar Hauser-like figure who spends his days watching television and gardening. He's incapable of real human emotion and doesn't really listen to people. Set free from his master's house after his master's death, he falls in with an extremely wealthy family who confuse his misunderstandings with true wisdom. Soon, so do all sorts of powerful Washington D.C. types. Hijinks ensue.
While Sellers's performance as the blank and obsequious Chance is remarkable, the film repeats a very similar pattern - Chance is confronted with some awkward situation, he somehow pretends like he is paying attention, and the world continues around him. It's also 130 minutes long, interminable for what's essentially a single joke. The satire may or may not be strong, but it's rather passe now. Give me Peter Finch being mad as hell over this reserved idiocy.
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