There's no denying that Peter Sellers was a comic genius and apparently there was no denying that Peter Sellers was a total bastard. The line is slightly blurred in HBO's biopic about the troubled (and troubling) brilliant actor with a tour-de-force turn by Geoffrey Rush slipping into the frenetic and manic mind of a real original talent sadly curdled by his inner demons.

Sellers was a unique British performer who got his start in BBC radio and struggled for some time to make the transition to the silver screen. However, with an ego pampering mother (the always welcome Miriam Margolyes), he is given the extra boost to push himself in gaining an audition that would lead to a British Academy Award and eventually international acclaim with the classic PINK PANTHER films, which featured his hilarious interpretation of the inept French Inspector Jacques Clouseau, and an assortment of wonderful films including the iconoclastic DR. STRANGELOVE and his swan song BEING THERE which would win him a posthumous Oscar nod.

But the path to global recognition for his gifts proved to be a rocky one from his first marriage to the beleaguered wife Anne (Emily Watson acquits herself nicely here) to his affair with Sophia Loren (the tres sexy Sonia Aquino) to his whirlwind heady second marriage to UK starlet Britt Ekland (Charlize Theron in a breezy turn) that ultimately lead to Sellers divorcing both and sadly living alone despite fathering a pair of children who he tortured with his manic depressive modes and outbursts of scary violence in his self-doubts and insecurities.

Rush uncannily embodies the legendary character actor with some fun and at times truly poignant flourishes - namely when he is attempting to find a 'voice' for a fourth character for STRANGELOVE that leads him to a panic attack and near breakdown that is truly shattering to watch him stewing in his own juices of what an utter failure he found himself to be despite the accolades and adoration of the film world he eventually conquered. Rush also impersonates the people in Sellers' life in a gimmicky dramatic device director Stephen Hopkins employs where the film is a film-within-a-film (i.e. a scene ends with his melancholic father turning to the camera and it is suddenly transformed into Rush). Otherwise it is handled with a nimble pace and some truly lovely period detail with a remarkable production design by Norman Garwood, Jill Taylor's costumes and Peter Levy's sleek cinematography are all aces.

Based on Roger Lewis' book of the same name, the screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely cuts to the meaty sections of Sellers' career with episodes between his favorite directors Blake Edwards and Stanley Kubrick (a jovial John Lithgow and a sardonic Stanley Tucci, respectively) as well as his family life and the odd relationship he shared with them.

Sellers in real-life has inspired many comics of today, notably Mike Myers who worshipped him and paid a valentine of sorts in his inspired by Austin Powers films. It's a shame that most comedians need to suffer - or cause suffering - to get to their craft; what would they be without it makes one wonder.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)