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Review: Mr Bean's holiday
Rowan Atkinson as the iconic clown maintains his silent tempo, often bordering on the low-brow, writes Vinayak Chakravorty.
Mr Bean's Holiday
Cast:
Rowan Atkinson, Willem Dafoe
Direction:
Steve Bendelack
Rating:
***
Don't be snooty, and you'll like it. To love Mr Bean, you have to be Mr Bean: an overgrown brat who isn't exactly bothered about life on the goofy track. Opinions don't matter - here's one Brit stiff upper lip that can take the joke on himself with a straight face after all.
If you have indeed 'Bean' there, done that (watched Bean in the first film or checked out the loony TV series, that is), you already have your opinion: Bean is either adorable or irritating. Either way, he is a buffbon on the go.
This time, Mr Bean has won a local church raffle and the big prize is a trip to France, besides a camcorder. It's unadulterated slapstick from the word go, as Bean grapples with the French language and a seafood platter with equal fumble flair.
It's all happening at the time of the Cannes fihn fest and thrown in is a Russian filmmaker, his moronic son, an ad-filmmaker sold on an ego trip, and, of course, a hot French babe to pep up things. In Bean's world, beware, the cerebral evolution of Man is a myth. While on political correctness, what's that?
Rowan Atkinson as the iconic clown maintains his silent tempo, often bordering on the low-brow. Those sold out on just that much can never get enough of it, of course. Ask Borat.
