The thin story has Bean winning a camcorder and all-expenses-paid trip to Cannes, on the French Riviera. Along the way, at Gare de Lyon, Bean causes Russian film critic Emil Dachevsky (Karel Roden), on his way to the Cannes Film Festival, to miss his train and become separated from his son, Stepan (Max Baldry). Bean tries to help the boy, but soon they're stranded in the middle of France with no money - Bean has lost his wallet and passport. Meanwhile, a frantic Dachevsky reports that his son has been kidnapped. Later, Bean and Stepan hook up with Sabine (Emma de Caunes), a struggling actress associated with narcissistic, pretentious filmmaker-actor Carson Clay (Willem Defoe), and the three make their way to Cannes in her lime-green Mini.

In the tradition of the silent clowns and Tati's M. Hulot, the twitish, childlike Mr. Bean rarely speaks, and because Atkinson's slapstick is so universal, the character has become hugely popular worldwide, possibly the most internationally popular live-action comic character since Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp. The most inspired thing about Mr. Bean's Holiday is an extension of this, throwing three characters together who speak different languages: Bean speaks only English, Stepan Russian, and Sabine French. Late in the film Sabine turns out to speak English also, but for most of the film she mistakenly assumes Bean is Russian like Stepan.

Though the French and Russian dialogue is accompanied by English subtitles, I strongly suspect that the original plan was to release the film worldwide with no subtitles at all. There are a few language-based gags - including one very good one with Defoe's annoying director making a pompous speech before an audience at Cannes, which his translator amusingly simplifies - but most of the film would have played just fine without them. Indeed, it might have made for a better film, with the audience trying to understand what Stepan and Sabine are saying along with Bean. I haven't read that the film was exhibited this way outside the U.S., but perhaps it was. Atkinson himself made live appearances as Bean before non-English speaking audiences, presumably to test the character's universality, so maybe that was what was originally intended here.

Parts of the film are better than its whole. Audiences might object, but if Atkinson ever does another Bean film (he's stated that this will be the last) he might consider doing a feature composed of three or more shorter "stories"; that is, basically string together what effectively would be, for example, three 25-minute shorts, rather than try to sustain a single narrative. As it is, Mr. Bean's Holiday is memorable for its digressed vignettes rather than its sentimental "plot." The title aside, it's closer in structure to some of Jerry Lewis's better, more experimental films (especially The Bellboy) than Mr. Hulot's Holiday. (Like Lewis, Atkinson's audience for his signature character appear to be getting progressively younger while reviewers once keen on Bean have been increasingly hostile toward his efforts.)

Scattered sequences are quite funny: Bean trying to make sense of a big platter of shellfish served him (by Jean Rochefort, a surprising face to turn up in a Bean movie) in a fancy French restaurant; the final comic montage, with Bean at long last reaching the beach at Cannes, is a real gem. Other gags are highly derivative: an asleep at the wheel sequence done better in Planes, Trains and Automobiles and a bicycle bit lifted from Tati's Jour de fete.

Atkinson's timing is faultless and his impressively rubbery features are as elastic as ever, but for feature length projects he's perhaps better suited to other types of comedy. He was hilarious as the prima donna comedy star (clearly a jet black alter-ego of Atkinson himself) in the superb, vastly underrated comedy The Tall Guy (1989) while starring vehicles like Johnny English (2003), though less inspired than the Bean TV specials, work better as feature-length material.

Video & Audio

Mr. Bean's Holiday is presented in flipper combo format, in standard DVD on Side B in a 16:9 enhanced presentation on a DVD-9. Side A is formatted at 1.78:1 (not 1.85:1 as stated on the box) in 1080p, encoded VC-1 with audio Dolby Digital 5.1 English and French on both sides, with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 on the HD side. Optional subtitles are available in English and French on both sides, but Spanish only on the standard-def DVD.

The image is very bright and clean, up to current standards, and while the mixing favors the fine, bouncy score by Howard Goodall and period songs by Charles Trenet and the like, the sound effects mixing comes alive here and there, though this isn't really the picture to show off your audio system. The box lists the running time at 90 minutes, but in fact the actual running time is 86:45, and without the end credits the movie is only 79 minutes long. (This is a good thing, actually; comedies like this tend to work best with running times under 80 minutes.) The film reportedly was cut slightly for release in America to avoid a PG rating; this would appear to be the shorter version.

Extra Features

Supplements, all in 480i/p standard definition, include nearly 24 minutes deleted scenes and three behind-the-scenes featurettes: French Beans, Beans in Cannes, and The Human Bean. The first two are typical on location fluff, but the third explores the Bean character and Atkinson's approach to and development of the character into the context of the film and as such is much more interesting. Web-enabled features are accessible via Universal's website.

Parting Thoughts

Mr. Bean's Holiday is the kind of film that probably plays better in a theater full of receptive fans of the character than watching it alone or with a few friends in one's home theater. It's a hard film to dislike; it's too sweet-natured and eager to please to be dismissed out of hand. Though not up to the level of the Bean TV specials, this second and perhaps last Bean feature is mildly funny and undeniably pleasant. Recommended.

　 Film historian Stuart Galbraith IV's most recent essays appear in Criterion's three-disc Seven Samurai DVD and BCI Eclipse's The Quiet Duel. His audio commentary for Invasion of Astro Monster is now available.