Somewhere I'd seen Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean; he was quite silly and I laughed a lot. Unfortunately, this particular Bean movie just seems to have a great deal of difficulty finding that spark of humor.

There's a wonderful scene with Mr. Bean busking for coins in the center of a French marketplace. He's pantomiming opera while a small boy plays along. Even with the imperfect lip sync, the end result had me in stitches. It's rather classic. But the bit with the greatest laughter quota involves Willem Dafoe and not Atkinson. How's that for a switch? Dafoe plays an indie director with a film at Cannes. Ribbing the Cannes festival, both that indie film and Dafoe's reaction to it cracked up this audience.

Otherwise, cackles and guffaws are sparse amidst much meandering. A lost bus ticket becomes a wild chicken chase that takes five to ten minutes to resolve with but a scant laugh or two in its entirety. This describes the film – a series of such bits, save for the last ten minutes that climaxes with a strong upward swing in both comedic and emotional value.

Lastly, at the risk of sounding too stuffy, let me pose this question, "Do we really want main characters stealing bicycles and striking innocent bystanders in our children's films?"

-- Book Contest --