Mr. Bean’s Holiday

By Karen Wilson

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MPAA Rating: G

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Theatrical Release: August 24, 2007
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 90 minutes
 
Plot: A church raffle offers the lovable and doofy Englishman Mr. Bean the opportunity to leave his cold island for the sunny beach of the South of France. Disasters big and small always follow in Bean’s wake, from spilled coffee to full-on traffic jams, so you know this vacation won’t be without its misadventures. But along the way Bean befriends a young Russian boy as well as a struggling ingénue and culminates his trip with a standing ovation at the glamorous Cannes International Film Festival.
 
Sex/Nudity: None, save for a little farcical cross dressing from Bean.
Violence/Gore: Comical with minor results: Bean gets hit by a truck but isn’t hurt; a man jumps off a bridge, a movie set explosion puts a secondary character into a sling
Profanity: Mild, with some simulated sputtering
 
Which Kids Will Like It? 
While some of the extended set ups might make really young children a little fidgety, the slapstick elements and rubbery face of Bean will charm most 2-5 year olds. Overheard audience exit reports of (okay an 7-year-old in front of me to his Dad) “isn’t this the best movie ever?” you know this one is going to be a hit with the 6-10 crowd. However, for the  children in the 11+ set, this could be a little dopey for their tastes, but the innocent clowning and acrobatic antics should tickle their funny bones none the less.

Will Parents Like It?
The simplistic plot and cartoonish characters probably won’t send a parent back for a second helping but listening to your kids laugh uproariously, and offering you a few chuckles in the bargain, could make for an entertaining outing.
 
Kaboose Review: The rubber faced stage performer and television personality Rowan Atkinson first created the character of Mr. Bean for a silent comedy series on Britain television with Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill) back in 1995. They then brought the character to the big screen in ’97 with the huge international hit, Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, setting Bean’s antics inside the pretentious, insular world of the Los Angeles fine art scene. However, it took another 10 years for Atkinson and Curtis to return Bean to his more natural home in the Continental locale of sun-dappled Cannes, France.

To understand what makes Mr. Bean funny, you have to be tickled by miscommunication and cultural snafu. Bean is the ultimate and perennial fish out of water, conversing with a few misplaced “gracias”s and “oui”s, some hand gestures and the occasional English phrase pronounced with an accent more like Grover than the Queen. The movie’s pervading aesthetic is deeply indebted to silent cinema clowns like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and even Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot (another accident prone naïf on vacation), as Bean good naturedly and spastically bumbles his way through the lush country side.

While his distrust of authority figures and lack of dialogue is quite unrealistic (surely even a French train conductor would speak some English and could retrieve Bean’s lost passport?), it seems silly to get bogged down in trivial concerns in the face of such pure comedy with a capitol K. Highlights of the hilarity include Bean’s encounter with a plate of beady-eyed langoustines in a fancy French restaurant, his mimed opera aria for change in an open air market and his frantic yet joyful bicycle ride down a country road while chasing a chicken who’s stolen his bus ticket (don’t ask, it made sense at the time).

Unlike the Cuba Gooding Jr. brand of children’s movie clowns, Atkinson eschews bodily humor or sexual innuendo for something a little more surreal and innocent. While his pleasures are freakishly single-minded (must. get. to. beach.), the film’s message of friendship, artistic expression and just having fun are clearly communicated. Plus, not having to listen to yet another replayed fart joke during the carpool is reason enough for most parents to shell out admission. Besides, if the kids really get into Atkinson’s brand of humor you can introduce them to Bean’s black and white forerunners like The Gold Rush, Steamboat Bill, Jr. and Play Time and (permanently) hide their DVD copy of Daddy Day Camp.
 

Directed by: Steve Bendelack
Cast: Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), Emma De Caunes (Sabine), Jean Rochefort (Maitre D’), Karel Roden (Emil), Max Baldry (Stepan), Willem Dafoe (Carson Clay)

Karen Wilson is a freelance writer living in New York City.