Bean: The Movie (1997) starring Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol
In Bean, Rowan Atkinson’s clown character Mr. Bean plays the part of a sleepy watchman at an art museum. He’s sent to America to watch the famous painting, Whistler’s Mother. The reason they sent them is because of his constant causing trouble without trying. Once in America, he does the same with the “foster family” that he’s staying with. And, he inadvertently destroys a famous work of art …
Frankly, I was pleasantly surprised with Bean since Rowan Atkinson’s Mr. Bean character is typically doing short comedy sketches. I was afraid that he wouldn’t work well in a longer setting. Thankfully, it does work, to no small degree to the work of Peter MacNicol. He and Bean work well, as an oddball comedy team. With the “normal” art expert (MacNicol) at first awed by the “foreign expert” (Atkinson) … Only to switch roles when MacNicol realizes that Bean is no eccentric expert. It’s a very funny comedy, with lots of slapstick grounded in a loving, not quite dysfunctional family.
Editorial Review of Bean the Movie courtesy of Amazon.com
Translating Rowan Atkinson‘s Mr. Bean character from British television to the big screen takes a bit of a toll, but there are some hilarious sequences in this popular comedy. Bean, a boy-man twit with a knack for getting into difficult binds (and then making them worse and worse and worse), is a London museum guard who is sent to Los Angeles in the company of the famous painting Whistler’s Mother. He’s mistaken as an art expert by the well-meaning curator (Peter MacNicol) of an L.A. museum, but Bean’s famously eccentric behavior soon causes the poor guy to almost lose his family and job. The insularity of Bean’s TV world is sacrificed in this film, and that change diminishes some of the character’s appeal. But Atkinson is a man naturally full of comedy, and he doesn’t let his fans down. —Tom Keogh
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