
Bean (Rowan Atkinson) works as a caretaker at Britain's formidable Royal National Gallery, and his bosses want to fire him because he sleeps at work all the time, but can't because the chairman of the gallery's board defends him. They send him to the U.S., to the small Los Angeles art gallery instead, where he'll have to officiate at the opening of the greatest U.S. picture ever (called "Whistler's Mother").... (Full plot summary below)
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Bean (Rowan Atkinson) works as a caretaker at Britain's formidable Royal National Gallery, and his bosses want to fire him because he sleeps at work all the time, but can't because the chairman of the gallery's board defends him. They send him to the U.S., to the small Los Angeles art gallery instead, where he'll have to officiate at the opening of the greatest U.S. picture ever (called "Whistler's Mother").
Leave your thoughts about Bean.
| Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)Judith EgertonAtkinson's genius at portraying a pesky, childish adult is reminiscent of the great comic stars of silent movies, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. |
| San Francisco ChroniclePeter StackSome of the middle section of Bean sags, but most of the film zips along with a series of comic setups, played like skits, that emphasize Bean's klutziness, his feeble mentality, his childlike, me-too urges. |
| Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittBut there's no denying the movie's frequent hilarity, abetted by Mel Smith's superbly laid-back directing and on-target performances by an excellent supporting cast. |
| San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserTo enumerate exactly how Bean messes up would be to expose the silliness of this movie, and since Bean's humor is terribly silly, rather, wonderfully silly, there isn't much point in going into detail. |
| The New York TimesLawrence Van GelderBut while rooted in British sensibilities, Bean is not to be confused with a Noel Coward comedy. Not every gag in Bean succeeds, but compared with most comedies, this one is a keeper. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumIn this slapdash production directed by Mel Smith ("The Tall Guy" but also, alas, "Radioland Murders"), written by Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings") and Robin Driscoll, there's just enough unrepentant self-centeredness missing to take the hilariously brutish edge off Bean's game for those who know him. |
| Los Angeles TimesJack MathewsThe idea of Bean fitting into this situation, even disastrously, requires more than suspension of disbelief. It requires a full blackout of reasoning. But for the converted, and for people with a low threshold for visual comedy, Bean amounts to a hill of laughs. |
| VarietyDavid StrattonAtkinson, who is in almost every scene, boasts a full-on comic personality that on the cinema screen is a bit daunting at times, and it's an open question as to whether the Carrey crowd will go for this seriously eccentric Brit. |
| Film Quips OnlineJohn R. McEwenThe film is little more than a showcase for Atkinson's broad slapstick comedy, overdone facial contortions, and bathroom humor. |
| Salon.comCharles TaylorWhatever the reason, Bean saddles Atkinson with a story that hangs on him like a dead weight and a filmmaking style that surrounds him like dead air. |