Peter Sellers (in a false nose) as a poverty-row street performer in working-class London who uses a cute mutt to collect donations while he sings and plays the ukulele; he's soon befriended by two latchkey children from the neighborhood. Director Anthony Simmons, who also co-adapted his 1964 book with screenwriter Tudor Gates, has a keen eye for human behavior, though he allows his star perhaps too much room to show off and be 'whimsical.' There's really not enough going on here to justify the film's elongated running-time, while the bleak surroundings depress an already-melancholy scenario. *1/2 from ****

I love the United Kingdom and have been there a couple times. I marvel, however, at how such a small country geographically can have so many different accents--very, very distinctly different accents--accents which are quite difficult for non-Brits to easily understand. Now I am not being critical--I know our American accents can vary widely as well. However, here is why I am on this little tirade: "The Optimists" is a film about the lower classes of London and because of this, the accents are tremendously difficult for Americans to follow at times. While they were not exactly speaking Cockney (something even most Brits cannot fathom),it was tough to hear--and the DVD had absolutely no captions (closed captions or DVD captions)!!! I HATE films without captions--particularly ones when the film is then marketed abroad.

The film stars Peter Sellers and he plays an impoverished busker. A busker, for us non-Brits, is a street performer who works for tips--a tough life, indeed. He seems to be a man who had at one time been on stage--now he wanders the streets with his cute but mangy dog working for tips. Sellers is good for this role, as he, too, came originally from the English music hall before he made it big in movies and television. This sort of performance is quite in line with the chameleon he was in films--particularly during the last decade or so of his life. Because his roles varied so much (and films in quality),it's really hard to describe him as an actor. As a result, his films varied widely from the very bad ("The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu") to the broadly funny (the Inspector Clouseau films) to the sublime ("Being There"--one of my all-time favorites).

Early in the film, a couple poor and neglected kids are intrigued by Seller's character and follow him home. At first he's a bit hostile and tells them to go, though after a bit he accepts them and lets them tag along with him as he wanders the city on his rounds. Most of this isn't particularly brilliant or plot-driven, though it is an interesting chance to see Seller add another unusual character to his huge repertoire. Plus, it's oddly fascinating...though I have a hard time putting this into words. I am sure, however, that many will hate the way that the film just meanders about--less like it's a story and more like it's just a portrait of some people. I will admit that all this did seem to go a bit too long--though it was interesting nonetheless. But, later in the film it all becomes quite maudlin--very, very maudlin (there's a dead dog subplot--uggh!). This is when the film started to lose me and unfortunately, the film ended soon thereafter. Overall, interesting at times, but terribly uneven and slow. Not a bad film, though not a particularly good one either.

By the way, apparently the film makers wanted to try several other actors in the lead--including, originally, Buster Keaton. Considering he died in 1966, it's obvious the project was in limbo for some time before they finally settled on Sellers--who did a fine job, though people insisting that he do a comedic performance will surely be disappointed. Oddly, in some ways this film reminded me of the wonderfully underrated Chaplin film, "Limelight"--a film, incidentally, which featured Buster Keaton in a nice cameo.

I'm a sucker for Peter Sellers as well as movies that center around dogs, so I'm easy to please here. That said, in both title and by being classified as a comedy, "The Optimists" is a bit off. Yes, it stars Sellers and a couple of likeably scruffy kids, but the story is one of only light humor and much sadness amid a downscale London district bordering the Thames called Nine Elms.

Nine Elms, as a lonely young girl named Liz (Donna Mullane) explains in the beginning, "didn't mean trees, it meant foggy winter, the noise of trains. But most of all, it meant Sam, the first to show us the world on the other side of the river."

Sam, played by Sellers, is a street performer, or "busker," who like his faithful dog Bella is getting on in years but still plugging away singing for loose change at soccer games. Liz and her little brother Mark (John Chaffey) initially tease Sam, but come to befriend him and Bella. Sam in turn indeed takes them across the river to help him in his street act, teach them some songs, and talk about life, death and the wonderland that's one's own imagination.

"It's magic, it's private, it's yours," he says of the last thing.

"It's not!" Liz counters.

"I told you that's a rude word," Sam tells her. "Use a handkerchief."

Sellers supposedly channeled memories of his father, a music-hall performer, in the character of Sam. He's charming company, tipping his battered hat and introducing songs like "No Matter How Long Your Stockings Are, The Tops Are Always Nearest To The Bottom." His interaction with Mullane and Chaffey is quite winning in a natural, unaffected way, chippy at first ("Don't annoy the dog, son, she'll pee all over you!"),then gradually warming into believable affection.

A problem with "Optimists" is the absence of any real story. Liz's concern with the world across the river stems from the fact there are nicer apartments there for her family to live in if they can get accepted by the right building council. Mark just wants a dog of his own. Later in the story, there is a crisis involving the getting and keeping of this second dog, as well as how the relationship between Sam and the kids is interpreted by their gruff-but-decent father. None of this adds up to riveting cinema, and "Optimists" sort of runs on like the river that forms its most memorable backdrop.

Amble as it does, "Optimists" has an engaging quality to it. Director Anthony Simmons, both the writer of the source novel and co-writer (with Tudor Gates) of the script, finds the right balance of image and pace. The musical score by George Martin, with songs by Lionel Bart, accentuates both Sam's music-hall heritage and his budding friendship with Liz and Mark. The cinematography by Larry Pizer is stark but beautiful, much of it centering around the environs of Battersea Power Station which will be quite familiar to Pink Floyd fans.

There are no stirring setpieces in "Optimists," but a lot of nice little moments that stand out when you see them, like another busker with trained budgies or an old woman glimpsed staring out the window at the children playing outside.

Twee and manipulative as it sometimes is, "Optimists" scores with a solid Sellers performance in the middle of his dry early-1970s period as well as a quality of battered hopefulness that sticks with you. If it had been more sharply written, it could have been a classic, but as it is it stands up as a character study and leaves a warm impression.