Bean... film vrhunske katastrofe

Mr. Bean, played by Rowan Atkinson, is a stupid, clumsy child trapped in a man's body. He has the tendency to screw things up. When he does, he tries to fix them in ways that only make it worse. The movie shows us one thing that is never seen in the TV show: a job. In the TV show, all the situations he finds himself in are in his free time, as if he doesn't work for a living. Since the movie needs a plot, Bean is given a job to do.

The movie begins with Bean as a security guard at an art museum. The problem: he falls asleep on the job. He falls into such a deep sleep that he falls out of his chair into a position where his rear end points upward, and he still doesn't wake up.

Some of the jokes are absolutely hilarious. When Bean arrives in Los Angeles, California, he pretends to have a gun in his coat because it seems fun to do. However, airport security already decides he's a threat. When ordered to put his weapon on the floor, Bean pulls out his hand shaped like a gun and places THAT on the floor. Then again, there are jokes that seemed more tailored to the American audience, like the scene where Bean thinks extending the middle finger is a friendly gesture. That might be why the film somewhat suffers. The US is perhaps the last country in the world to import Mr. Bean, so this movie is an attempt to gain more of the American audience.

The movie also deviates from the TV show by having more interaction between Bean and other characters. Bean, instead of being fired from the museum, is assigned to escort the painting of Whistler's Mother to a Los Angeles museum. He stays with a curator at his house, even though his family thinks he is a walking disaster. Bean causes a lot of trouble, but he means well in the end.

Kudos to Peter MacNichol who dares to make a fallible and completely likeable character out of David, who could otherwise, just be a straight man for Bean's antics. It is he who finally holds Bean still and sputters in exasperation, the straight-up truth: 'If you do nothing, nothing can go wrong.' A peaceful thought but short-lived. We spend most of the film dreading the next Bean-induced disaster.

Atkinson entertains us unmercifully in this role. Surprisingly, in Bean: The Movie, his impeccable physical humour is almost overshadowed by an outrageous speech describing artistic qualities of the original Whistler’s Mother painting. (“It’s big,” he begins).