BEAN (Gramercy) Starring: Rowan Atiknson, Peter MacNicol, Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Burt Reynolds. Screenplay: Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll. Producers: Peter Bennett-Jones, Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan. Director: Mel Smith. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, adult humor) Running Time: 90 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Rowan Atkinson is the most gifted and versatile comic performer in the English-speaking world, and I only qualify the statement that much for fear of appearing more cosmopolitan than I am. No one is as equally deft at delivering withering insults (see the various incarnations of his "Black Adder" character) and performing priceless, wordless physical comedy (see the television episodes of "Mr. Bean"). As both a jokester and a classic clown, he is unrivaled. That most Americans know him best -- if at all -- as FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL's malapropping priest is a problem in serious need of correction.
I'm not sure the film version of BEAN is going to do it. Atkinson's Mr. Bean is a marvelous comic creation -- a gangly, goggle-eyed maladroit with the mischievous self-absorption of an adolescent and the one-size-too small brown suit to match. In the vignettes which comprise Bean's television adventures (seen in America on HBO and public television), plot is never permitted to intrude on the pursuit of a hilarious bit of pantomime. Launched from a simple situation into wild flights of humor, Bean's actions _are_ the plot of a "Mr. Bean" episode.
BEAN the movie makes the critical error of jamming Bean into the same tired, conventional premise which as served as the vehicle for a hundred unconventional comedians. To wit: Bean, an inept employee at London's National Gallery, is shipped to the States by superiors who are only too glad to be rid of him. David Langley (Peter MacNicol), the curator of a prestigious Los Angeles gallery, is expecting a brilliant scholar to preside over the unveiling of "Whistler's Mother." He is not expecting the man who promptly begins wrecking his home, his family life and his job. Can you say "fish out of water?"
Atkinson deserves better. When he's allowed to do his thing, he is a genius. There are a few brilliant Bean moments in BEAN: the opening sequence which finds him shaving every exposed surface on his head; a super-charged ride on an amusement park motion simulator; Bean pushing a draped painting through a hallway as though it were a gurney. The situations set up by Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll aren't really the problem in BEAN. It's director Mel Smith who misses the point that "Mr. Bean" isn't about other people reacting to Bean's absurd antics; it's about Bean responding to his own absurd antics. MacNicol, Harris Yulin and the rest of the supporting players are asked to play straight men to Atkinson, who doesn't need them. He's a one-man comedy team.
In one sense, I'm being a bit more harsh than BEAN deserves, because it's still more entertaining than most Hollywood comedies. Atkinson is too energetic a performer to allow BEAN to drift into unwatchability, making for a film which will provide audiences with plenty of satisfying laughs. But I can't help cringing at all the miscalculations that went into BEAN, most notably the sentimental message which becomes unnecessarily obtrusive. After speaking fewer than a dozen words through most of the film, Bean cuts loose with a heart-felt speech which proves he has learned a valuable lesson on his trip to America. Mr. Bean growing as a character? Stuff and nonsense. I'd much rather that the makers of BEAN learned the lesson and produce a BEAN film deserving of the name, one which doesn't suffer from forced attempts at creating a feature length narrative. Let Bean wreak his merry havoc. Let his beloved Teddy have more than a token cameo appearance. Let Rowan Atkinson show the world that he's one of the funniest men alive. Everyone will be happier when he does.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 half-baked Beans: 6.
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