Bean (Mel Smith, 1997): USA
Reviewed by Lauren Sousa. Viewed on DVD.
It is worth noting that 1997’s Bean (Mel Smith) is based on the 14-episode British television series that is, surprisingly, remarkably funny. The show essentially consists of a character named Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) doing stupid things. For instance, he once spent hours taking a test he was unqualified for, only to realize in the final moments that he had come to the right place at the right time and simply taken the wrong test, which is much funnier when helped by his insistently rubber face. There is no long-term plot to the Mr. Beantelevision show. Mr. Bean shows up, does something asinine, and goes away.
In this somewhat funny first movie adaptation of the television series, Mr. Bean succeeds in getting a few asinine actions onto the screen, but could have done much better. The climax is, as it should be, rightly hilarious, as are several other well-done scenes in the film. However, everything good about this movie suggests that it should have been, as its much better sequel Mr. Bean’s Holiday (Steve Bendelack 2007), is, a super-sized episode of Mr. Bean.
The attempts at plot are relatively feeble: Mr. Bean is hired by the head of London’s Royal National Gallery for no reason, and his job is literally to “sit and look at paintings.” When a gallery in Los Angeles needs a speaker for the unveiling of Whistler’s Mother, the gallery board votes to send Mr. Bean because they hate him for reasons unknown. Once there, he disturbs his host family, the Langleys, but they ultimately love him because he is Mr. Bean.
The trouble is that there is far too much of the Langelys for the movie’s own apparent comic intentions. They serve as a crew of “straight” characters, ostensibly from the viewer’s world, to prove just how crazy Mr. Bean is. However, it is so patently obvious that his best scenes here, as in the sequel, take place when he is alone and silent that the “others”simply steal screen time in their attempts at misplaced drama.
In the kind of broad, silent comedy at which Atkinson excels, plot doesn’t matter. It can and should be strange and weird – the roots the film places here in reality throw it off far more than would setting it on the face of the moon from Le Voyage dans la Lune. The actors, especially Peter MacNicol, who plays David Langely, seem aware that this movie might be bad but do nothing to save it.
One exception is Sandra Oh, the gallery’s HR representative who viewers may recognize from Grey’s Anatomy. With platinum blonde streaking her black hair, she manages to be as ridiculous as the film requires of her while remaining, as a supporting actress should, in the background.
Rowan Atkinson has made four films that stand out from his filmography as uniquely his own: Bean and Johnny English (Peter Howitt 2003) and their respective sequels Mr. Bean’s Holiday and Johnny English Reborn (Oliver Parker 2011). Judged against the four, Bean is better than Reborn, but the two have common characteristics. Neither are as funny as their source material, and both talk too much for their own good.
One thing the film does right is the sets: the completely whimsical Grierson Art Gallery and the Langelys’ house are perfect for the film that could have been and delightful for the film that was. Interiors are designed with gags in mind, as they should be – plain, but definitely effective.
Overall, this film does not reach the heights of which Rowan Atkinson is certainly capable. Never quite reaching cruising altitude, it does get off the ground in the best scenes of slapstick. With more of them and better acting, it could soar, but the joyful sense of fun that permeates it will always keep Bean from being a bore.
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