Hal Ashby's "Being There" is one of the most complex dramatic comedies that I have seen since "The Apartment" and is one of the most well crafted and acted movies in the genre. Peter Sellers stars in one of his very best performances (and the one that nabbed him a final Oscar nomination) as Chance a gardener who is illiterate and loves to watch TV that lived and worked in the home of a rich old man named Chauncey Gardiner and his maid named Louise who brought him his meals on a daily basis and when the old man dies at the beginning of the movie she leaves and he is evicted by a pair of lawyers from the house and ends up drifting around the streets of Washington DC with some clothes and his handy remote so he can watch TV from anywhere only to get his leg smashed in between two cars and is found by a woman named Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine) who convinces him to come to their house for medical attention because a hospital would be too expensive despite never having been in a car before he agrees. When they get to the Rand household there is a funny scene in an elevator where Sellers is in an elevator with a security guard and says "I've never been in an elevator before" and asks is there is a TV in the elevator and naturally the guards answer is that there isn't one to begin with. Later that night after Chance is examined by the family doctor (Richard Dysart) he meets Eve's husband Ben (Melvyn Douglas) who is a rich old millionaire dying of cancer and during his final days grows to admire the simple minded gardener. During his stay at the Rand residence Chance's national profile grows with TV appearances, press interviews, state dinner attendances, and even meeting the President of the United States (Jack Warden) who believes that there should be more people like Chance in the United States Congress. The movie is far from perfect but has very few weaknesses (especially MacLaine's mastubation scene on the bear rug in Chance's bedroom) and a script by Jerzy Kosinski (who also wrote the book which I didn't read) which could have been tweaked just a little bit, but otherwise the film is perfect in terms of Asby's excellent direction and standout work from Sellers whose work is on par with Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump" and Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man", MacLaine, Douglas (who got his second Oscar for his performance), and Warden. This is one of the very best movies of its kind and is not to be missed by anyone, Period.
Review of Being There
