Bean
1997 · Directed by Mel Smith
Original language: English
- family
- adventure
- comedy
The story
Childlike Englishman, Mr. Bean, is an incompetent watchman at the Royal National Gallery. After the museum's board of directors' attempt to have him fired is blocked by the chairman, who has taken a liking to Bean, they send him to Los Angeles to act as their ambassador for the unveiling of a historic painting to humiliate him. Fooled, Mr. Bean must now successfully unveil the painting or risk his and a hapless Los Angeles curator's termination.
What it’s like
Bright, bland, fluorescent-lit comedy staged in the flat daylight of museum galleries, hotel lobbies and sunlit Los Angeles streets, with wide establishing shots that make the city look as impersonal as an airport. The camera mostly sits back and lets Rowan Atkinson's physical business play out in full, so the pleasure is in watching a single gesture unspool across a room. Sound is light: squeaks, clatters, a bouncy comic score and the wheeze of a bad car, with little that threatens. The vibe is sunny, slapstick and warmly absurd, a good pick for a lazy afternoon, a family film night, or a comfort rewatch when you want to laugh without thinking. Its pacing is loose and episodic, with set pieces that build small disasters into bigger ones, and its emotional arc is simple: a gentle, unworldly man gets a chance to prove himself and finds an unlikely friend in a stiff, overworked curator. There is some mild peril and mild rudeness, but no real violence, sex or gore, and nothing frightening. Made for families, fans of British sketch comedy, and anyone who wants wholesome, low-stakes silliness.
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