The Movie:
Rowan Atkinson has made a career out of playing characters who are, frankly, annoying. From his longrunning Blackadder series, through many film roles where he specializes in fussy eccentrics, to his current signature character, Mr. Bean, Atkinson excels at making people you normally would want to throttle strangely lovable and frequently laugh out loud hilarious.
Despite Atkinson's half-hearted protestations to the contrary in one of the extras on this DVD, there is little doubt that Mr. Bean's Holiday owes a spectacular debt to Jacques Tati's own Gallic mime leaving a trail of disaster in his wake, Monsieur Hulot. Both characters barely utter a word, are seemingly made of some space-age rubbery material that allows them to bend their bodies (and in the case of Atkinson, his face) into shapes that seem to defy the laws of physics, and both have an uncanny knack of wandering blithely unaware into an environment, causing domino-like events of cascading tribulations for those around them.
Mr. Bean's Holiday centers around its title character's winning ticket to a vacation in Cannes. Suffice it to say that the going is not particularly smooth, and soon Bean finds himself shepherding a young boy (winningly played by Max Baldry) who, due to Bean's customary idiocy, has been separated from his father. Also playing into the lunacy is an absolutely pitch-perfect Willem Dafoe as a self-obsessed cinema auteur (albeit one not above filming a yogurt commercial in one of the more--no pun intended--delicious bits in the film) and the lovely Emma de Caunes as an actress who repeatedly enters Bean's manic world.
The film is full of the great physical comedy at which Atkinson is so adept, where eating a gourmet French meal becomes an exercise in facial expressions, or where getting trapped in a shed strangely placed at the edge of a country lane proves that Atkinson can be funny even when he can't be seen. More interestingly perhaps, at least from a visual angle, is the stunning French scenery that provides a gorgeous backdrop to the proceedings. Stunning vistas of fields of wheat and flowers slowly waving in the breeze are suddenly interrupted by Bean's buffoonery and, strangely, it all seems to flow effortlessly.
Mr. Bean's Holiday has an abundance of heart beating through its comic episodes, which tends to ground the more cartoonish aspects of both the character and the film in general. When Bean, after one "situation" after another, is finally able to realize his dream of standing on the beach at Cannes, it's actually one of the most heartfelt moments I've experienced in film recently.
The DVD
Video:
The enhanced 1.78:1 image is absolutely beautiful, especially in the outdoor scenes, where the breathtaking French countryside is on display. Colors are well-saturated (Bean's pasty appearance is deliberate, as is discussed in an extra), and the image is crisp and well defined.
Sound:
The sound, such as it is, is absolutely fine. There are only a few moments of dialogue, but there are several scenes with music (both "live" and underscored), and all is well-separated and reproduced with excellent fidelity.
Extras:
There are a handful of deleted scenes (some very short, but one very funny longer scene with de Caunes and Atkinson), as well as three talking-head featurettes (all obviously culled from the same interviews) focusing on the film in general, the Cannes location, and Atkinson.
Final Thoughts:
Mr. Bean's Holiday proves that nary a word need be uttered for a film to be consistently clever and well-written. This will be enjoyed by kids of all ages and is highly recommended.
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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet
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