Being There (1979)
A simple, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics.
About Being There
Chance is mentally challenged, those that know him who would probably call him simple. He doesn't know how to read or write. For as long as he can remember, he has worked as the gardener for his long time employer Mr. Jennings, has never stepped off the property of Jennings' brownstone in Washington DC, has only known Jennings and the only other household servant, a maid/cook named Louise who tends to all his meals, and has only had contact to the outside world indirectly via television, the channels on which he is frequently changing as he watches. Conversely, no one but Jennings and Louise know that he lives there. He only fully understands the world of his garden, all else, including what he sees on TV, he not comprehending in their entirety. His wardrobe consists largely of Jennings' discarded but well appointed clothes. After Jennings dies, Chance is sent "into the world" not truly understanding what his new situation means. By chance, he eventually meets wealthy Eve Rand, who, out of circumstance, invites him to her and much older ill husband's house. Her husband, Ben Rand, is a financier, who will probably imminently pass from his aplastic anemia. Not fully comprehending…
