Good film. Steadily paced, assured direction and nice understated performances from ten cast. Sellers’s robotic performance is particularly impressive. Nothing special visually. The camera is subservient to the story. But that suits it. Confident and consummate filmmaking all round. 7/10

A fantastic and very unique film. Peters Sellers really is amazing and I plan on seeing more of his films.  Much better than his more celebrated The Party.

A very intelligent comedy that still works essentially after more than 45 years. I actually saw it after Forest Gump, therefore it felt to me a lot like Forest Gump, just less American and more English (even though it plays in the US). The movie holds a mirror in form of modern society and politics through a simple minded guy who happens to be well dressed, has good manners and repeats mostly what others say. This makes him an advisor to the US president and ultimately even a presidential candidate. These few capabilities, together with a child-like mind make him the ideal candidate for high positions in business and politics. People interpret into him what they want to see, whereas he is just a simple Gardner with good manners. Even if at time e bit naive, the movie is in general an excellent metaphor for modern politics and business. I also believe that this is the best performance I have seen from Peter Sellers. Do not miss it.

I can understand the love for Peter Sellers here–he really sells the hell out of this, and my reaction to his performance evolved throughout the movie: from “huh, funny” to “what is happening” to “ok, let’s move on and do something” to “oh, maybe this is actually amazing.” In other words, it’s a one-joke movie but the artistry is in the repetition, perhaps? That said, Ashby is still hanging an entire movie on this performance and 40 years has dulled the satire a bit, so as a whole it didn’t quite come together.

A gardener becomes president of the United States