Being There [M]

Chance is a man who has been isolated all his life, working as a gardener and only knowing about the outside world from what he’s seen on television. But when his wealthy employer dies, Chance is forced into the real world and after getting hit by a car, he finds himself within the company of an influential senator and his wife. Although ignorant of the workings of the economy, politics, and indeed real life in general, Chance’s sincerity about gardening, the only thing he knows anything about, is mistaken by his hosts as metaphors for the state of the world and Chance is soon inadvertently changing the lives and careers of all those around him, even the President. 

Well it has to be said that this movie is really like a flower, and yes that was an intended simile. Written by Jerzy Kosinski from his novel, Being There is a really lovely movie that begins as a slow and somewhat disheartening story about a man’s disenfranchisement and struggle to adapt to new surroundings, but then blooms into a most beautiful story about people, society, and life. My eyes were glued to the screen from start to finish. 

Chance is a man who has been isolated all his life, working as a gardener and only knowing about the outside world from what he’s seen on television. But when his wealthy employer dies, Chance is forced into the real world and after getting hit by a car, he finds himself within the company of an influential senator and his wife. Although ignorant of the workings of the economy, politics, and indeed real life in general, Chance’s sincerity about gardening, the only thing he knows anything about, is mistaken by his hosts as metaphors for the state of the world and Chance is soon inadvertently changing the lives and careers of all those around him, even the President. 

It would have been really easy to ruin this movie, make it into some cheap and tacky sort of comedy where one character changes everyone around them of the better. But with simplistic and gorgeous direction from Hal Ashby, and stunning performances from its central characters, as well as the most wonderful and subtle comedic writing, Being There was just perfect, beginning as one thing and then blossoming into something else entirely. 

The film’s central comedy comes in the form of the writing, namely Chance’s sincerity being taken as metaphors for life and the state of the economy, and the misunderstandings that bloom from his sincere and simple comments. Case in point, there is a very funny moment where Chance is talking about TV and he simply says to a young gay swinger “I like to watch”, which is then taken to be dripping with sexual innuendo. The writing is very funny, but very simple, letting the audience’s minds do the work and it’s absolutely brilliant. 

Peter Sellers stars as Chance and he delivers a most memorable performance. The character of Chance is one very different from the manic and loud characters that Sellers is most well known for, but just like Will Farrell’s Harold Crick in Stranger Than Fiction, I think that it’s when these revered manic stars play simple and sincere characters, that’s when they really shine. Sellers delivered a performance that was driven on powerful passivity and he was vulnerable, gullible, adorable, sincere, and unencumbered. There seemed to be no weight of any emotion on his shoulders at all and I found his performance wholly admirable. 

Starring Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, David Clennon, Fran Hill, Ruth Attaway, and Richard Basehart, Being There is a beautiful film filled with misunderstandings, sincerity, growth, drama, romance, and comedy, It’s absolutely lovely and really is like a flower.