Mr. Bean’s Holiday is the latest in the bizarre adventures of Rowan Atkinson’s funny, somewhat autistic, character. The calamities Bean causes are as outrageous as ever but in this movie he seems to have matured just a little, with a teensie weensie bit more sympathy for some other human beings, notably the child whose father was left behind on the station platform because of Bean’s self-absorption. As ever in funny road trip style movies, everything ends up well. The photography is wonderful and almost hyper real in its clarity but I think this bounces rather heavily on Bean, making some of his facial contortions appear ugly and not funny. There is a little too much reliance on grimaces in the film. Emma de Caunnes’ beauty flourishes in this style of photography but almost everyone else in the film fails the test. Her response to Bean is as bizarre a mystery as anything in the film but hooray for the fascination for a stranger! I do live in China after all. It’s a great film which will have you groaning, laughing or wondering whether to laugh or groan. I don’t think it is quite up to the other Bean works but it’s good enough for me. I’ll watch it again and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has me laughing more the second time and the third time and so on.