I am a big fan of Peter Sellers and enjoy most of his films, and I realize that this film is highly regarded for various reasons, but it was a total misfire for me.
The film is a one-joke work that wears thin very quickly. Just as quickly, it becomes less and less credible. It becomes not so much a matter of how obtuse the Sellers character is, but how totally credulous and unbelievable the rest of the characters are. Not for one minute did I believe any of their reactions to Sellers beyond the first few encounters.
It's too bad, really, because Sellers was an amazing talent; a totally plastic actor who could literally become any of the characters he played. I will continue to enjoy most of his other work, but I could never sit through this again. It was boring and, after a while, excruciating.
The film is a one-joke work that wears thin very quickly. Just as quickly, it becomes less and less credible. It becomes not so much a matter of how obtuse the Sellers character is, but how totally credulous and unbelievable the rest of the characters are. Not for one minute did I believe any of their reactions to Sellers beyond the first few encounters.
It's too bad, really, because Sellers was an amazing talent; a totally plastic actor who could literally become any of the characters he played. I will continue to enjoy most of his other work, but I could never sit through this again. It was boring and, after a while, excruciating.