Mr. Bean's
Holiday
IMDb Rating
148K
IMDb Votes
71%
Rotten Tomatoes
$230M
Box Office
Synopsis & Review
Directed by Steve Bendelack and produced ten years after the original film, Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) sends Britain's most accident-prone man on his most ambitious journey yet — across the whole of France. After winning a raffle prize of a trip to the French Riviera and a camcorder, Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) sets off from London's St. Pancras station bound for Cannes. What should be a straightforward rail journey quickly spirals into a magnificent odyssey of miscommunication and mayhem. At Paris's Gare du Lyon, Bean inadvertently causes a Russian filmmaker named Emil Duvaux (Karel Roden) to miss his train while filming him — accidentally separating Emil's young son Stepan (Max Baldry) from his father in the process. Unable to speak French and entirely unable to communicate with the child, Bean nonetheless takes it upon himself to reunite the boy with his father, setting off on an increasingly chaotic cross-country adventure through Lyon and Vileneuve on their way south. Along the way, they encounter aspiring actress Sabine (Emma de Caunes), who takes pity on the pair, and ultimately find themselves gatecrashing the Cannes Film Festival itself — where Willem Dafoe plays a pompous auteur director whose self-important film is hilariously upstaged by Bean's own camcorder footage.
Where the 1997 film was fundamentally a fish-out-of-water comedy transplanting Bean into America, Mr. Bean's Holiday is something warmer and more cinematic: a road movie drenched in southern French sunshine, with a genuine emotional throughline in the unlikely bond between Bean and young Stepan. Director Steve Bendelack shoots France with a postcard-bright beauty that gives the film a luminous, almost Tati-esque quality — and the comparison to Jacques Tati is not accidental. Like Monsieur Hulot, Bean moves through the world with the innocent destructiveness of a child who has wandered into a world built for sensible adults. Rowan Atkinson's physical performance remains extraordinary: a scene in which Bean mimes a beach vendor's entire sales pitch for Stepan's amusement, or his operatic lip-syncing to a Purcell aria on a restaurant stage, are among the finest pieces of silent comedy in 21st-century cinema. The film's RT score of 71% makes it the best-reviewed Bean feature, and its worldwide gross of $230 million confirms the character's enduring global appeal. It is, ultimately, a film about joy — and it delivers that commodity with tremendous generosity.
Why Watch This Movie?
The Best-Reviewed Bean Film — And Deservedly So
With a 71% Rotten Tomatoes score, Mr. Bean's Holiday is the most critically acclaimed of all the Bean features. Critics responded to its lighter touch, genuine warmth, and the beauty of its French locations. It feels less like a gag delivery machine and more like a proper film that happens to be very funny — a distinction that matters enormously.
A Road Movie With a Real Heart
The relationship between Bean and young Stepan provides the film with genuine emotional stakes — something the first film largely lacked. Watching the entirely wordless Bean attempt to care for a child he cannot communicate with produces comedy, but also something unexpectedly touching. It is the closest the character has ever come to displaying recognisable human tenderness.
The Purcell Aria Scene Is Unforgettable
In one of the film's most celebrated sequences, Bean — stranded and penniless in a village square — commandeers a restaurant's sound system and performs an elaborate, face-pulling lip-sync to Henry Purcell's "Nisi Dominus" to earn money from passers-by. It is gloriously absurd, brilliantly timed, and proof that Atkinson's face alone is one of the great comic instruments in cinema history.
Cast & Crew
Director
Steve Bendelack
Screenplay
Hamish McColl & Robin Driscoll
Story By
Robin Driscoll & Rowan Atkinson
Mr. Bean
Rowan Atkinson
Stepan Duvaux
Max Baldry
Sabine
Emma de Caunes
Carson Clay
Willem Dafoe
Emil Duvaux
Karel Roden
Producer
Working Title Films / Universal
Official Trailer
© Working Title Films / Universal Pictures. Trailer embedded via YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mr. Bean's Holiday the last Mr. Bean film?
Yes — as of 2025, Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007) is the most recent theatrical Mr. Bean film and is widely understood to be the final one. Rowan Atkinson has stated in multiple interviews that he finds playing Bean an increasingly uncomfortable experience, describing the character as "exasperating" and "demanding" to sustain physically and creatively. He has indicated he is unlikely to reprise the role on the big screen. The character did appear in a 2012 animated series on Cartoon Network and in various international commercials, but the live-action cinematic Bean appears to have ended here.
Where was Mr. Bean's Holiday filmed?
The film was shot on location across France and the United Kingdom. Key locations include London's St. Pancras International station (the departure point), Paris's Gare du Lyon and surrounding arrondissements, the French countryside between Paris and the Mediterranean, and the city of Cannes itself — including the famous Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, home of the real Cannes Film Festival. The production made full use of authentic French locations rather than studio backlots, which gives the film its distinctly sun-drenched, travel-postcard visual texture.
Why does Willem Dafoe appear in a Mr. Bean film?
Willem Dafoe plays Carson Clay, a self-important American auteur director whose ponderous, pretentious film is premiering at Cannes — and who serves as the film's comic antagonist. Dafoe has spoken in interviews about taking the role precisely because it was so different from his usual intense dramatic work, and because he was a genuine admirer of Atkinson's comedy. His willingness to play the pompous villain entirely straight — delivering his absurd lines with full sincerity — is exactly what makes the character so funny. His performance is a masterclass in the art of playing it completely straight in a broad comedy.
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