Review: Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)

[Jerry Saravia]

MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY (2007)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars

Mr. Bean is certainly an acquired taste, and so is Rowan Atkinson who
plays him. I can't imagine American audiences warming up to a man-
child like Mr. Bean, who mugs for the camera mercilessly (of course,
only in France is Jerry Lewis admired as a genius). 1997's "Mr. Bean"
did not find its core audience in America and this mindless yet quite
engaging comedy sequel, "Mr. Bean's Holiday," found even less of an
audience. It is a shame because Atkinson has crafted a character whose
simple-mindedness can serve as a reminder of Charlie Chaplin.

The movie can easily be described as simply as Mr. Bean goes on a
holiday to Cannes, thanks to a winning ticket. Disaster strikes from
the beginning after arriving in Paris, he marches across streets and
everything in between according to the lines of a map, including
walking over any obstacle in his path (this is similar to a Levi's
commercial from a year ago). At a French restaurant, he orders lobster
and has no idea of how to eat it (some of the gags will remind one of
Daryl Hannah's mermaid eating a lobster dinner in "Splash"). Before
boarding a train, he asks a passenger to take pictures of him with his
Sony mini-DV camera as he is approaching the train (there is one take
after another). Naturally, the passenger's son ends up leaving the
train without him thanks to Mr. Bean.

The rest of the movie follows Mr. Bean and his adventures with the
passenger's son, Stepan (Max Baldry). Stepan is headed to Cannes as
well since his father, the passenger who missed the train, is a member
of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival. In the midst of one mishap
after another, Bean loses his passport, his money and his train
ticket. He tries to steal a motorbike, and fails. He wanders into a
movie set where an arrogant, egocentric director (Willem Dafoe, who
plays the part with perfect comic pitch) is making some sort of
pretentious thriller (accent on the pretentious). There Mr. Bean
dresses up as a Nazi extra, and meets the lovely Sabine (Emma de
Caunes), an actress who is also on her way to Cannes to see the world
premiere of Dafoe's film.

"Mr. Bean's Holiday" does drag slightly in the mid section, but it
picks up at the Cannes Film Festival climax which features some of the
movie's best comic setpieces. Mr. Bean may be too much to bear for
some, but I enjoyed his incessant mugging and his inability to be
anything but clumsy and a poster child for Murphy's Law. The movie is
fun in all the pratfalls and comical blunders the character commits,
though nothing is as funny as when he performs Puccini's famous "O mio
babbino caro" on the streets for money, using nothing more than a
caftan and a boom box!

As I said before, either you're with "Mr. Bean's Holiday" or you are
not. I was and I saw a joy in Rowan Atkinson's performance that can be
described as inspired and flat-out funny - he is like a silent
comedian, especially when he never says anything and mostly grunts.
And any movie that features the "Hawaii-5-0" theme and Puccini has got
to be a little bit special.


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