Bean: the Movie Review

While there are a lot of movies that I have seen that feature Peter MacNicol in them, this is one that I was expecting to be a bit different than it was. I like this movie, but I was expecting something more like Mr. Bean’s Holiday and this is very different despite featuring the same main character. I will cover this movie and get to its big and good moments in addition to the bad moments as well.

 

We begin with Bean shaving. People at an art gallery want to fire him. He gets in a rush. The people at the gallery also want to have someone hired over the purchase of Whistler’s Mother, the painting, as there is a sabbatical of sorts with it. The leader of the gallery doesn’t want him fired and says that he would rather resign before Bean is dismissed. They instead decide to send Bean on the sabbatical.

 

David, an official at the California art gallery, is convinced that Bean is the best person despite not knowing who it is. He as curator is told that it is his neck on the line if things go wrong. He wants Bean to stay there with him and tells his wife and kids about the plan. They don’t like it.

 

Bean gets on his flight in first class. Harry is shown other things given for this occasion such as a poster that’s the actual size of the painting and an exact replica. When Bean gets to the airport, he pretends to have a gun upon seeing officer’s guns and is chased by them after having tried to get away from them going the wrong way on a moving sidewalk. When he is caught by the police, he reveals that his weapon is just his hand. He could use medicine according to a cop there.

 

We then see Bean at David’s house. David’s wife wants Bean gone. Bean shows off his skill where he throws candy into his mouth where his mouth catches it to eat it. He later takes his underwear that he was heating in the oven for some, unexplained reason, out of the oven in front of the others.

 

David takes Bean to the art place. Bean gets distracted in the bathroom and causes a mess. One of the people that he sees later sees him being weird. Part of the front of his pants get wet and he tries to hide it from others by putting stuff in front of that area as the meeting takes place. He then walks in front of a fan which people notice. Bean has tried to explain how he’s not a doctor as they think that he is, but this does not happen right away for a while. Bean is told that he will be giving a speech. David is also told that Bean was his choice for the museum’s most important moment. This is a reminder that David is the one who has his reputation on the line.

 

Back at his house, David wants to make sure that Bean doesn’t mess with a crystal swan. He tells his wife Ally that Bean is still here, claiming that he never had the chance to bring up the subject. She leaves with the kids for their grandparent’s house after the swan and a picture wind up ruined.

 

The next day, Bean and David go to an amusement park and he isn’t thrilled by the ride of doom. He then makes changes to the ride the second time around. Since this causes issues, he is brought into a room and David is told to take responsibility for it by a cop there.

 

David is back home that night wanting to talk to Bean until company shows up. Bean is told to make a meal and a turkey for Thanksgiving (as it must be close to it in the movie’s time?) is the only food that is there. Bean is left alone with the turkey and his watch winds up in the turkey. He gets his head stuck in there while trying to get it out. David helps get the turkey out with the watch coming out as well. The two of them put the turkey in the microwave and it explodes.

 

This is when the two of them sit down and David learns that Bean isn’t a doctor nor does he know much about art. The next day, David is in the shower and Bean winds up in there with him. There is a phone right outside the shower, which I don’t think would ever happen in reality. After some awkwardness, Harry learns that the painting, Whistler’s Mother, has arrived. David tells Bean to act rational since it is reminded again that David’s career is on the line.

 

Back at the art gallery, Bean only seems to admire the frame of the painting as it is shown off for the first time in front of others. Speaking of the others, they decide to leave Bean alone with the painting for a weirdly long amount of time. That’s when things go terribly wrong.

 

Bean stands too close to the painting and sneezes onto it. And this is why I don’t stand too close to paintings and always sneeze away from them. I’m serious. He tries to get the mess off of it, but winds up getting ink onto it instead. He takes it away where it seems like he fixes it with paint thinner, but then a lot of the actual painting gets messed up and not just the blue ink spots. He rubs at it and ruins the face part of it. He takes it back to the gallery where it hangs when Harry walks in on him. Bean reveals the mess and David realizes that he can’t just blame Bean for this. They hide the painting away.

 

Both of them wind up drinking at the bar and show up to David’s place drunk where his wife and kids are back with Ally thinking that she has to leave them. An offhanded comment from David’s son makes Bean realize that he can save the day. He takes the supplies that he needs and sneaks into the museum where he slips laxative into the somehow only night guard’s drink while he does his work.

 

The next day, David’s daughter rides off on a motorcycle much to his horror. He wants to figure out a solution to the problem of the painting, unaware that it was already solved by Bean that night. He sees what appears to be the painting in its normal state. Bean secretly reveals that it was a poster. This creates a bit of a plot hole as it makes you wonder how and when Bean learned about this poster.

 

Bean then delivers a speech that is actually quite funny and is liked despite the fact that he made it up right on the spot. This is when a police officer comes and tells David about his daughter Jennifer being in an accident. This officer stops on the way to the hospital to help with a shootout as Bean and David go on to the hospital.

 

At the hospital, the night guard from earlier is there in the restroom, still having issues. Bean is told to stay there while David checks on his daughter. Bean tries to return a stethoscope to a doctor and winds up put in scrubs and taken to a surgery. He sees the cop from earlier, now a patient with a gunshot wound. While the others in the room leave Bean alone, Bean tries to eat a piece of candy like he did earlier in the movie by tossing it into the air and catching it with his mouth. Since he is in a mask, this falls off of that into the patient. He takes the bullet out first, but puts it back in. He finds the candy which he then rinses off and eats. The others return and Bean takes out the bullet with his hand again, much to the amazement of the others there.

 

Bean is still mistaken for a doctor, this time, the other type of doctor, as he is taken to Jennifer’s room and continues to do weird things while left alone with her and the others oblivious to his real identity. He accidentally wakes up Jennifer from her sleep and reveals who he is when asked how he can repay them for this. He asks to stay for a week.

 

He does more in LA and winds up thinking that the middle finger is a good sign since he gave a man a thumbs up and was given that in return. He must be a fan of Farscape, then. He bids farewell to David at the airport and returns to his place in London, apparently much sooner than the sabbatical was. We see him with the original painting, now damaged and at his place somehow. We also see him talk to us for a bit at the end of the credits if we stay there far.

 

There’s not much to say as I finish reviewing this movie. I think that a lot of it is good and worth watching over and over again. There are some bad parts as well as some of it is just gross and other parts simply aren’t funny. But this is an overall good movie that I recommend. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.