Biopic lacking heart and soul

Nobody was terribly surprised when The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers, the lone British entry in Cannes, left town empty-handed this weekend.

Produced by the BBC and America's HBO, this chaotic, scrappy biopic bears the marks of an oftrewritten script and/or a film dramatically cut back in the editing room (it races at a furious lick through Sellers's late decline and his third and fourth marriages). The wonder is that it was included in the competition in the first place.

Based on Roger Lewis's biography of the same name, the project has been beadily observed by several interested parties, including Britt Ekland, Sellers' second wife. The

film-makers brilliantly headed off that problem by persuading Ekland to attend the premiere in Cannes, alongside the actress who plays her, Charlize Theron, fresh from her Monster Oscar (Sellers's children, who had also objected to the film, have yet to see it).

It's true that The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers is inoffensive and at times even mildly likeable; but that's just because there is little to engage stronger emotions.

The cast is admirable, in particular Geoffrey Rush in the all-important title role. He delivers a string of brilliant impersonations: of Sellers himself, of his best known screen personae in films such as The Pink Panther and Doctor Strangelove and of some of the key people in the actor's life, who comment sporadically on the proceedings.

If his performance also lacks heart and soul, that's due to the script's shortcomings, Near the beginning, Sellers comments bleakly that he used to have a personality but he had it surgically excised. That does not, however, make for either a riveting or a sympathetic character and, having once made the point, the film is left with nothing to do except repeat it ad nauseam.