Who needs a vacation?

Automatic reply: Out of Office

One of my all-time favourite movies is Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I think it is one of the few movies that truly has it all: comedy, obviously, but also romance, adventure, and mass-choreographed dance scenes. 

Mr. Bean: the man, the mystery

Mr. Bean is a great character, who manages to entertain, engage, and communicate while using very little spoken word. Rowan Atkinson, the actor, has said that he decided Mr. Bean would rarely speak so it could be accessible to everyone, no matter what language they speak. I think one of the reasons Rowan Atkinson’s sketches as Mr. Bean became so popular is because he is a very average man, someone everyone can relate to, who gets himself into incredibly absurd situations. In the movie, he wins a trip to Cannes and a video camera in a raffle. His goal through the entire film is to just get himself to Cannes and enjoy his vacation. It’s a simple desire, and a pretty universal dream. Who doesn’t want to go to the beach and enjoy a holiday? 

The universal travelling experience

Of course, just as in real life, his vacation goes off the rails. When he asks a man on the train to film him getting on to start off his vacation video, he inadvertently causes the man to miss the train, separating him from his son. While trying to reunite the father and son, he loses most of his luggage and his passport. The rest of the story follows along with their hijinks as they attempt to make it to Cannes and find the child’s father again. Along the way Mr. Bean meets an aspiring actress with an identical car to the one he has back in England, and is accused of kidnapping. 

I think that at the heart of the movie, the problems are so universal: the stress of losing a passport, the fear of losing a child in a strange city, or one of the many other obstacles that come with travelling. It resonates particularly strongly with me, since I have personal experience with losing passports on a train.

As much as Mr. Bean causes chaos and annoys almost everyone around him, you still want to root for him. He does his best to fix the problems he’s caused, while still making it to the beach. He’s not perfect, but he’s genuine, and that makes him likeable and engaging. The other characters around him are believable and likeable, pursuing their own missions in life. I think one of the reasons it’s such an enjoyable movie is that you genuinely care about whether the characters get to where they want to be: the beach, the movie premiere, or back to mom and dad. 

It’s about the journey, not the destination

All in all, Mr. Bean’s Holiday follows all the basic principles of a good story: a clear mission, a well-structured plot arch, authentic characters, and a relatable situation. It throws in a few musical numbers for good measure and some physical comedy, and it becomes pretty much the perfect movie. 

I will end by wishing that all of you experience the same joy when you finally reach the destination of your next vacation: Bean at the Beach.