Mr Bean's Holiday

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Mr Bean's Holiday's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Mr Bean's Holiday completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 4 April 2007.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Mr Bean's Holiday contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) wins a holiday in Cannes in a local parish raffle. He takes the Eurostar to Paris and from there he hurtles headlong into one catastrophe after another. At the Gare du Nord railway station Bean asks a fellow passenger, Emil Duchevsky (Karel Roden) to film him getting on the train and in so doing causes Emil to miss the train. Emil is in fact a famous film director, whose young son Stepan (Max Baldry), is waiting for him on the train. Emil conveys to Stepan that he should get off at the next station. Bean, feeling responsible, also gets off and of course, the train that Emil is on doesn’t stop.

Bean and Stepan then go on a journey across France, having to raise money along the way as Bean left his wallet and passport on the station. They stumble onto a film set where Bean falls for an attractive young actor named Sabine (Emma de Caunes). Sabine agrees to drive Bean and Stepan to Cannes as she is also heading there for an opening preview of a movie in which she has a part. They head to Cannes not realising that they are being hunted by the police as suspected kidnappers.

Themes

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

None of concern

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, mostly slapstick comedy, including:

• Bean nearly causes a major car crash
• Stepan hits Bean
• The film set which Mr Bean visits is a French village which is suddenly attacked by armed soldiers, firing rifles
• Some men hit Bean across the face
• A man jumps off a bridge to kill himself because he thinks his girlfriend has left him.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• A vicious dog leaps barking at Bean
• Bean’s tie gets caught in a vending machine and almost chokes him

Apart from the violence listed above, there is little in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight but there is risky behaviour which might be imitated, including the following:

• Bean steals a bike left lying on the footpath
• Bean holds onto the back of a vehicle while riding a bicycle to help him go faster.
• Bean steps out of a balcony of a high level apartment building and steps down onto vehicles in a step fashion until he reaches the beach.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Although there is little in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, there is risky behaviour that children could imitate, including:

• Bean tries to hitch a ride
• Stepan accepts a lift from a group of buskers in a kombi van
• Sabine falls asleep at the wheel and Bean has to move her out of the way and take over while the car is still moving
• Bean repeatedly dozes off at the wheel
  

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Some children over thirteen could still be at risk of imitating some of Bean’s behaviour.

Product placement

None

Sexual references

None

Nudity and sexual activity

None

Use of substances

None

Coarse language

None

The movie's message

Mr Bean’s Holiday is a lighthearted and entertaining comedy with  minimal dialogue and no obvious message. However it does present risky behaviour that children might try to imitate.

Parents may wish to discuss with their children the importance of not going off with strangers or accepting lifts from people you’ve only just met. Parents could also discuss the ethics of taking a bike that doesn’t belong to you and the real life consequences of risky behaviours such as holding onto a vehicle while riding a bike and driving a vehicle when you are too tired.