He plots his course correction along a perfectly straight line, and then never deviates from it, leaving havoc in his wake. We are given an early taste of this during a long and rather unfunny title sequence, when Bean realizes he has been taken to the wrong train station in Paris. It is the mishaps that follow him wherever he goes that cause the alleged hilarity to ensue. In “Holiday,” Bean wins a church raffle whose prize is a trip to the south of France, and off he goes to the south of France. This is very appealing in cultures whose language centers are not yet well developed, such as kindergartens, and among fans of the late Benny Hill.Ĭharacter always trumps plot in a Mr. Bean is somehow manage to turn his insides out, so that every emotion that passes through him instantly appears on his face. And Atkinson himself, while funny in small doses in such films as “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” has flopped in this country with such sputtering vehicles as “Johnny English.” In fact, “Bean” is a delicacy that seems not to travel well. Bean, so how do we account for this? Is he that funny? Actually, no. There have been other rubber-faced comics in motion pictures – particularly silent ones – but few have had the outsize success of Atkinson’s Mr. Bean’s mouth, except his tongue, which advances and retreats in a disgusting darting motion. Eyes bulge cartoonishly from their sockets, brows are raised and lowered like flags, the entire facial superstructure moving this way and that. Bean’s is a pose of perpetual stupefaction. Bean’s obvious international appeal is “gurning,” which, like Bean himself, is a term much better known in England than America, meaning “the making of grotesque faces.” In fact, the Wikipedia page on gurning lists Atkinson right behind Jim Carrey as one of the world’s leading practitioners of grotesque face-making. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) has already earned nearly $200 million in 38 countries, even before extending his “Holiday” to America.īut the G-word that best describes the source of Mr. Bean’s Holiday” is a comedy seemingly aimed at children and dimwits, an audience so vast in certain parts of the globe that the grunting, gurgling, grimacing Mr.
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