Reviewed by Mike Anderiesz
Stars Rowan Atkinson, Willem Defoe,
Max Baldry, Emma de Caunes
Written by Robin Driscoll & Hamish McColl
Produced by Peter Bennet-Jones,
Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner
Certification US PG | UK PG | Australia PG
Runtime 80 minutes
Directed by Steve Bendelack
I confess I was looking forward to this about as much as root canal work. Mr Bean started out in 1990 as a clever idea and quickly turned into a merchandising franchise with occasional laughs thrown in. So the prospect of a second movie didn’t exactly have me rolling in the aisles — but in a Rocky Balboa-sized surprise, it’s rather good. The first smart move was to abandon any attempt at a proper plot. The original Bean movie was an embarrassing disaster because it tried to justify how someone as inept as Bean could possibly live in the real world. This time, it’s basically one long sketch, loosely strung around the premise of Bean trying to reach the beach.
And it’s a French beach at that, tapping into the true roots of this kind of comedy in the films of Jacques Brel and Charlie Chaplain. In fact there are strong echoes of ‘The Kid’ throughout as Bean picks up a child along the way and now has to fend for both of them. It’s a surprisingly effective double act that papers over the largely predictable mix of
missed busses, wrong directions and sight gags around Southern France. There’s also a charming turn from Emma de Caunes as a bit-part actress about to end up on the cutting room floor until his intervention. It tastefully avoids the spectacle of Bean having a real romance while ensuring that Emma (daughter of ‘Eurotrash’ host, Antoine) will be picking up better parts in future. The pace does begin to flag badly in the middle, as Howard Goodall’s intrusive soundtrack hammers home the lack of real content. It’s also undeniable that many of MBH’s funniest moments are extensions of previous sketches. There’s one in a restaurant involving oysters which reminds me of the far-funnier ‘Steak Tartare’ sketch from the telly.
Luckily things are saved by an unashamedly feelgood ending, including a show stealing performance by Defoe sending up his own ‘I’ll do anything for a credit’ career of recent years. This and a joyous rendition of ‘La Mer’ ensures most people will leave Mr Bean’s Holiday with a smile on their face, which is probably a lot more than they walked in with.
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SECOND OPINION | Neil Davey: Remarkably, Mr Bean’s Holiday doesn’t completely suck.
While that’s not exactly going to make a poster quote, it’s still going to come as something of a surprise for anyone who wasn’t six and/or French when the previous movie appeared. Bean was released an amazing 10 years ago, so at least the makers can’t be accused of cashing in. Nor though have they used the interim period to craft anything desperately original. Mr Bean’s Holiday is simply business as usual for Rowan Atkinson’s gurning, bendy, semi-mime.
And maybe it’s the benefit of time — endlessly repeated TV specials had stretched affection to breaking point by the time the first film came out — but this film raises several smiles, a good few giggles and a couple of genuine belly laughs. As cinephiles will tell you, Bean has always been a downmarket M. Hulot and the homage to Jacques Tati’s character is particularly obvious here, with the South of France setting and the word ‘holiday’ in the title. That’s a bold or foolish move and Bean generally suffers with the direct comparison. However, there are a couple of setpieces worthy of Tati and Willem Dafoe’s Carson Clay, a self-absorbed film director, is an inspired addition to the film.
The plot, in a nutshell, is Bean wins holiday — and video camera — in a church raffle. Bean travels across France. Bean films himself. Everything goes wrong. He finds himself accused of abducting a small child, loses his ticket(s), gets confronted with foreign food, blows up a film set, loses his passport, falls in lust with a French actress and runs out of money. Though not necessarily in that order. Each development is broadly telegraphed, generally relying on Atkinson’s ‘arp’ noises and face-pulling for the pay-off. And yes, 75 per cent of it is a little tired and predictable: a scene in a Paris restaurant is basically a poor version of that original Steak Tartare sketch, despite Jean Rochefort’s presence. Other big gags revolve around the aforementioned misplaced passport or chasing his bus ticket down the street. Yawn. And then, every so often, they slot in something genuinely funny. A scene where Bean attempts to hitchhike on — and then steal — the world’s slowest moped is brilliant in its obviousness and executed with supreme style. Ditto his attempts at busking. The best though comes at the end, with a very well-crafted walk to the beach and Carson Clay’s fantastically pretentious Cannes entry. Whether four laugh-out-loud scenes justifies the cost of the ticket is debatable but bear in mind that you’ll probably have been smiling most of the way through. Even though you’ll deny it later.
• Official Site
• Mr Bean's Holiday at IMDb
• Mr Bean's Holiday Competition