The movie is about Hailed, a cool person. This person's life suddenly transforms when he decides to play a dangerous political game and becomes a potential presidential candidate. Over time, this man discovers that he is facing a bad path because of the challenges he must face to reach a new position.
Hal Ashby directs Being There at an unruffled, elegant pace, the better to let Mr. Sellers's double-edged mannerisms make their full impression upon the audience.
People Magazine
July 08, 2014
The movie's main effect is to confirm how versatile Sellers has always been.
No one seems to know what to do with the allegorical undertone of Jerzy Kosinski's script, but as a whole this 1979 film maintains a fine level of wit, sophistication, and insight.
What emerges in the end is a strange ambiguity of attitude to the American political system and a hollow humour about cultural values. The cinema of cynicism, really.
Sellers has never been better and he embellishes the detached, childlike innocence of this character with perfect style and timing. It's a deceptively simple performance, but it is essentially the core and substance of the film.
