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Show Page 22 Thursday, April 3, 1980 The Newspaper (ft II WdDipfldl 'Being By Rick Brough You know you're watching a Tonight Show rerun when Johnny Carson jokes that his incompetent business manager man-ager just bought him a percentage of Peter Sellers' "everything except Pink Panther movies." Sellers is out of the Clouseau mold with his superb performance in Being There: he renews his credentials as one of the finest of all comic actors, even while breaking away from their ranks. While most clowns are playing Everyman, Every-man, Sellers is portraying Noman. His character, Chance, has spent his entire life within the confines of his eccentric guardian's estate, occupied solely with gardening and watching television. After the rich old man's death, he's set loose on the streets of Washington, D.C., and stumbles into the highest circles of political power, where his blank demeanor is regarded as iron self-control, and even the president of the United States interprets his horticultural comments ("If the roots are not severed, all is well") as flowery maxims for the formulation of economic eco-nomic policy. Sellers has for so long played dual roles, triple roles, has piled one disguise on top of another, and this may be thj first time in 20 years he has emerged from behind heavy makeup. Chance's face has a middle-aged middle-aged austere look; its appearance ap-pearance is partly medieval monk and partly Male-mute. Male-mute. Chance reacts like a dog drowsily smacking his lips in the morning light, dumbly accepting the good or bad that comes his way. i Conflicting impressions like this are a large part of Jerzy Kosinski's story, especially the notion that his Innocent has been molded by life-long exposure to flowers and boob-tube fertilizer. ) When Chance is evicted from his home, it's like seeing, a pampered, pedigreed pedi-greed oouse pet thrown out to fend for himself. Without the maid who fed him three times a day, his only response to gnawing hunger is to politely accost strange women and ask if, please, could they fix him a little lunch. You're almost inclined in-clined to leap on screen and see to it that he gets a good home. What saves Chance are the rich and powerful folk who immediately take him to be more than he is. (They, not incidentally, also save the movie from the dangers of a monotonous one-character story. ) Dying industrialist Melvyn Douglas, who meets 'Kramer vs. ( a classic) is that rare film that lives up to its hype. The picture's theme about a deserted husband discovering his capabilities as a parent-homemaker leads you into the theater expecting some kind of equal-time reply to the Women's Lib Film, but instead in-stead you find a picture brimming with intelligence and tenderness. Dustin Hoffman's Hof-fman's much-expected Oscar is more than a reward for past triumphs; building from the masterful writing-direction writing-direction of Robert Benton, his Ted Kramer is, before your eyes, becoming, not just a man in a woman's otherlode Services ( Of Park City Wants to work for you. Home Finders Rental Service Custom interior design & decoration Custom artwork Furnishings and accessories Home improvements Home repair Permanent and temporary Employment Placements ; Entertainment bookings Agency to Artists of quality distinction . . . what we don't do we can refer you to . . . Motherlode Park City's Service Company 649-609 1 There' Chance through a street accident, assumes he's a down-and-out fellow magnate, mag-nate, and soon has them both tooling about his mansion in twin wheelchairs. Douglas' to-be widow (Shirley Mac Laine) responds to Chance's "sexual intensity." The family doctor (Richard Dysart) sees him as a challenging diagnosis. The President (Jack Warden) can't dig out enough information infor-mation on his new "advisor" to fill a White House dossier, and his feeling of impotence boomerang upon him in the bedroom. Everywhere he goes, Chance's empty personality reveals little of himself, but a great deal of the people around him. He's a walking Rorschach test. The final twist is that while we in the audience laugh-smugly laugh-smugly secure that we're "in" on the joke we're being pulled in by the same lure. Whatever meaning we find in Chance's story "It's about sex!" "It's about fame!" "It's about politics!" you can bet it reflects our personal predilections, neuroses, etc. (The canine overtones in Sellers' performance per-formance are there because I put them there, having as I do, an incorrigible soft spot for dogs who stare at you with watery, yearning eyes.) We all could agree the picture is in large part a satire on TV addiction. Chance is the ultimate TV junkie; he regards the newfound new-found world around him as the clearest, brightest color console of them all. Still, the theme is not very well developed, and is prone to inconsistency. Sometimes Chance is hypnotised by the set, but at moments when watching would be unfor-giveably unfor-giveably tasteless (in attendance atten-dance at Douglas' deathbed) he can apparently resist tuning in to Gilligan's Island. You can't pin down a message in Being There, but that is part of Peter Sellers' triumph, as he deftly balances bal-ances pathos, whimsy, and a sharp sense of the uncanny through the shifting dimensions dimen-sions of his role. His accomplishment is firmly based on Kosinski's fine screenplay, which succeeds suc-ceeds even though the premise pre-mise shows signs of fatigue by picture's end. The supporting sup-porting performances, and Hal Ashby's direction, have a dry, thoughtful timing which is perfectly at one with Sellers' portrayal. Being There will charm you, will haunt you, will make you think, and (Clo-seau (Clo-seau fans take note) will make you laugh. Be there. Kramer' role, but a wiser, gentler human being. Justin Henry off-handedly succeeds in the most difficult of tasks for a child actor; i.e. acting like a real child. Meryl Streep's desperate, deserting wife provokes most of the Hollywoodish twists and turns of the story, but she transcends trans-cends them. Our feeling for her plight lurks constantly behind our sympathy for Hoffman, and she haunts the film up to and beyond its happy (?) ending. Kramer vs. Kramer will be playing Friday through Sunday at Park City's Holiday Village Cinemas. In Park City Channel 2 is received on Channel 9 Channel 4 on Channel 11 Channel 5 on Channel 13 WEEKDAYS A r KUTV KTVX KSL KUED ilM CH. 2 CH.4 CH. 5 CH. 7 1TX NBC ABC CBS PBS 700 Today Hotel Morning Sesame Street Balderdash 30 " " .. .. 800 " Good Morning Romper Room Over Easy America " 30 " " Celebrity Figuring . 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