 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Mr Bean's Holiday
- Directed by: Steve Bendelack
- Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Emma de Caunes
- Release Date: 31 March 2007
As much as we hoped otherwise, Atkinson's clumsy character is a has-Bean
With all the talk of a renaissance in silent comedy it's easy to forget that in the early nineties the most popular character on TV was an almost-mute physical comedian. Mr Bean has become such a global brand that Atkinson's physical contortions and precisely executed slapstick are consistently (and criminally) underrated.
Mr Bean's previous cinema outing was high-grossing but disappointing; his antics became more annoying than endearing when dragged out to 90 minutes and moved out of his London home. But I remained hopeful that Bean, a truly innovative and original character, had a potentially great film in him. If so, Holiday isn't it.
Once again, Bean is taken out of London as he wins a holiday to Cannes, but (of course) all doesn't go to plan. What should be a simple journey becomes a farce, but not quite how we'd like it to be. The film fails as a series of potentially classic Bean skits are never fully realised. When he gets his tie caught in a vending machine he simply pulls it out, and when he loses his raffle ticket he simply finds it. It is as if they had so many great ideas for Bean situations that they couldn't investigate any properly. On TV each situation had 15 minutes to develop, but here things fly by with only the sense of another chance missed.
As the road trip continues yet more goes wrong, but it is never really Bean's fault. He used to get himself into scrapes with his absurd reasoning and lack of social skills, but now bad things just happen to him. He forgets his wallet, he drops his ticket, we've all been there; it's not great comedy.
Atkinson is still great and there are a few worthwhile moments, but it's
just not quite enough. If this is to be the last appearance of Bean (as
Atkinson says it is) then it's sad to see it end this way, and your time
would be much better spent watching the ITV series.
Josh Widdicombe
