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Movie:		8.0
Picture:		7.0
Sound:		8.0
Extras:		5.0
Score:		7.0

Director(s):	Hal Ashby
Writer(s):	Jerzy Kosinksi
Starring:	Peter Sellers • Shirley MacLaine • Melvyn Douglas
Genre:	Comedy • Drama
Release Date:	February 03, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	DVD - $14.99 ; Blu-ray - $19.99
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Being There took me back. Growing up I would watch the Peter Sellers film The Mouse That Roared and I really didn't understand what was going on the first few hundred times. As I got older I grew to appreciate the absurd tongue in cheek humor Sellers crafted with each of his characters and eventually, at age 13, my attention was drawn to the Kubrick masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. That movie blew my mind.

Fast forward 5 years. The attention once paid to Sellers has been dispersed among the film world I'd gone off to explore. One day a friend lends me this very plain looking DVD case titled Being There. I played the whole I'm-really-busy game, it may take me a few weeks to get around to this. And that was the truth. Two weeks later on a quiet Saturday afternoon I finally slid Being There into a DVD player and sat back - unsure of what I was about to watch. IMDB existed but I'd refrained from educating myself in any way about the film. The film opens with Peter Sellers. I smile.

Being There follows Chance the Gardener, a decidedly simple man, who finds himself without a home upon the death of the owner of his Washington D.C. apartment. For a man who's lived his entire life under the guidance of the television, venturing out into the real world is a wholly disorienting experience. He wanders the streets and eventually stops in front of a department store where, lo and behold, cameras make him appear on the appliance he's worshipped his entire life. Caught up in the moment he backs a little too far into the curb and has his leg pinched after a car reverses, trapping him.

This seemingly innocent and simple moment catapults Chance into a world caught totally unawares by a man of such simple cognition. Eve (Shirley MacLaine) insists upon giving Chance medical care for the trauma her car inflicted and whisks him home to her mansion of political dealings. Eve's ailing husband Benjamin (Melvyn Douglas) immediately takes a liking to Chance's simple and earnest demeanor and eventually invites the gardener to sit down with him and the president during their upcoming meeting.

Peter Sellers films always come with an instinctual tongue and cheek mentality written into the humor. In Being There this quality is increased three-fold in a wonderful display of political mockery. Being There perfectly illustrates the concepts of political self-importance and the effects of seeing what you want to see. While everyone hails Chance with accolades for his brilliant and understated gardening metaphors for politics - no one takes the time to truly look at the man and take account of what their really seeing. It's the Emperor's New Clothes given a delicious spin by Director Hal Ashby.

Peter Sellers equals perfection. His performance is nuanced to such a perfect degree that every time he says "I like to watch" you understand how the people the movie mocks could take the statement as more than it really is. If Being There had been made today Will Ferrell would have been cast - and it would've been a train wreck. The solemnity of Sellers allows him to brush off Shirley MacLaine in heat while standing on his head in bed attempting to duplicate a yoga pose from the television. Put any other actor in that position and it looks dumb. Leave the job to Mr. Sellers and you end of with a truly beautiful and funny moment.

Shirley MacLaine as Eve requires a certain measure of belief suspension on the part of the audience. Not because she can't play a widow in the making, suffering through the sickness of her husband - but for the exact opposite of reasons: she comes across as so together that even with a shroud of grief blurring her vision, her inability to see Chance for what he really is can be nothing but a comedic device.

Therein lays the true comedic beauty of this Ashby and Sellers creation. The film spends just enough time showing the politicos as men and women incapable of conceding that they've misread a situation so thoroughly that it's easier to go on believing what they want to. In this Obama frenzied age you can't help but draw a few parallels between the characters mocked in Being There and the most rabid of Obama supporters. While President Obama and Chance are certainly on different mental planes - the effect of overzealousness is equally present.

DVD Bonus Features

"Memories from Being There" Featurette

Melvyn Douglas's daughter gives a brief retrospective on life during the production of Being There and her interactions and memories from the experience. While a nice sentimental piece to watch there's really not much here in terms of content. More interesting would have been the take of Hal Ashby or Peter Sellers on the project - but alas, we'll take what we can get.

Also on the DVD is the trailer for Being There along with alternate audio and subtitle track options.

Being There deserves your attention. On that note, you deserve to watch Being There. You owe it to yourself to see this film - to show it to your children once they hit their teenage years. It gives excellent insight into the human mind and society in general.

"I like to watch."