It's clear from the opening ten minutes of Mr.Bean's Holiday if you'll like it or hate it, indeed for those who encountered the stretchy faced simpletons other motion picture or any of the T.V material you'll know before you buy a ticket or sit down to watch. It's no secret that Rowan Atkinson's Mr.Bean is a love or hate commodity, the man's antics overjoy some but repulse others, and so when I sat down to watch I was rather pleased that I belong to the former camp. The film is simple in it's plotting, Bean wins a ticket, some spending money and a camcorder to visit the south of France. Indeed the first comic set-piece is over with prior to the opening credits having been completed and Bean has found himself within the French domain earlier still. As with any adventure involving the character it's not just about a holiday, Bean quickly causes disaster and devastation, being accused of kidnapping a child and ruining a celebrated filmmakers day at the Cannes festival, along with numerous other problems. The film is well paced and presents enough amusement to keep all parts of the audience amused. I personally thought it a weaker venture than 1997's Bean, but not by all that much, the character still has enough idiotic potential and charm to make this a worthwhile project. Atkinson portrays Bean with the same manic energy we have associated with the character for nearly 20 years, and several of the jokes and gags are completely dependent on the conviction of his goofing, which thankfully cannot once be brought under critical questioning. He slips from disaster zone to disaster zone with ease and the audience will lap up that aspect of the film for sure. In support we have a rather weak set of persons however, actors ranging from Karel Roden to Emma de Caunes right back to Willem Dafoe fail to make any real impact. The latter playing a snobbish film director has a few laughs come the finale but any scene he features in prior is not made by his being there. Dafoe clearly is having a good time but he might have done more to please the audience than himself. The rest are banal and bland Emma de Caunes looks great, but makes for an unconvincing love interest and the sub plot involving Karel Roden and his lost child is stolen by Atkinson. The screenplay really can't have amounted to much (most of the film is in french) but any of the gags formulated within the script must have been quite good. The screenwriters have written for the character before and thus they have a firm grip on his stengths and weaknesses. At times a joke (usually devoid of Bean's presence) will fall flat and there are large sections of the film that are aimed strictly at the under 12's but overall if you let yourself go and don't judge to harshly this is a decent set of gags and farcical situations. The movie is bound to do decent business in the USA when it see's release later this month but having taken over £200,000,000 in Europe already the film must be classified as a success. Reviews have been hard occasionally cruel, but then thats just the nature of this beast. I enjoyed the production and will still look fondly on the character (this is supposed to be his final appearance) but not everyone will share my sentiments, and so before bothering to write a review or pay for admission think to yourself "Do I actually want to see this?" Once you know that you know what to do, and if you make the same choice as me I doubt you'll regret it.
Review of Mr. Bean's Holiday
