Comic 'Holiday' proves Atkinson's a real human Bean
"Mr. Bean's Holiday"
3 stars
out of four
Opens today
Starring As
Rowan Atkinson Mr. Bean
Willem Dafoe Carson Clay
Emma de Caunes Sabine
Max Baldry Stepan
Jean Rochefort Maitre d'
Screenplay by Hamish McColl and Robin Driscoll. Produced by Peter Bennett-Jones, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner. Directed by Steve Bendelack. A Universal Pictures release. Rated G. Running time: 88 minutes.
No! It can't be!
Reportedly, Rowan Atkinson has said this movie will likely be his swan song as the klutzy Mr. Bean, the cult British comic character who combines the addled inattentiveness of Mr. Magoo, the charm of Jacques Tati's M. Hulot and the physical feats of John Cleese's Minister of Silly Walks.
"Mr. Bean's Holiday" would be a perfectly suitable movie to retire on. It's a funny, sweet and occasionally inventive throwback to the spirit of those classic silent comedies from Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton.
Plus, this movie represents a great improvement over 1997's refried "Bean," the last Atkinson vehicle that cast Mr. Bean in a dismally under-powered story about his dalliance with Whistler's Mother -- the painting.
"Mr. Bean's Holiday" begins with the titular character winning a church raffle prize of a free trip to France. The plot, utterly simple without being simple-minded, throws Mr. Bean into a series of episodic adventures as he eventually bumbles his way to the Cannes Film Festival.
There, an egomaniacal American director named Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe, mocking a traditionally European art film director cliche) presents his pretentiously laborious exploration of love titled "Playback Time."
In addition to the trip, Mr. Bean also wins a Sony handicam, a device that comes into use (overuse, as it turns out) throughout his journey. Mr. Bean frequently turns the camera on himself in an apparent attempt to create a video diary of his trip.
Funny? Sometimes. Mostly, this visual gimmick skirts the borders of annoyance as director Steve Bendelack falls back on it in virtually every scene.
Along the trip by rail, Mr. Bean's ineptness with a camera causes a Russian movie director (Karel Roden) to miss the train to Cannes, where he is slated to be a festival judge.
Feeling guilty, Mr. Bean tries to help the director's young son Stepan (cute newcomer Max Baldry), left alone on the train. The two form a tentative friendship, although it's obvious that Mr. Bean has no idea how to be a surrogate father. But he tries.
Later, a fresh, young French actress named Sabine (Emma de Caunes, France's answer to Jessica Alba) joins the guys on their way to Cannes, where she has a bit part in Clay's "Playback Time."
As in earlier Mr. Bean projects on TV and the silver screen, most of "Mr. Bean's Holiday" could be a silent movie with the befuddled hero uttering barely more than a word or two in a scene.
This movie belongs to Atkinson, who mugs, shrugs and lugs his way through far more polished material than he last had in "Bean."
Under Bendelack's tighter direction, "Holiday" gives Atkinson ample room to perform his nerd shtick and surprising physicality while employing inside movie jokes, one involving a motorbike lampooning Omar Sharif's lengthy entrance in "Lawrence of Arabia."
Will this movie really be the last for Atkinson? I hope not.
More Beans, I say!