A simple-minded gardener named Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. house of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television.
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.
– Janet Maslin,
New York Times,
20 May 2003
rotten:
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.
– Chris Auty,
Time Out,
26 Jan 2006
fresh:
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.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
31 Oct 2007
fresh:
A highly unusual and an unusually fine film.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
31 Oct 2007
fresh:
Here is a comedy that valiantly defies both gravity and the latest Hollywood fashion.