Bean MPAA Rating: PG-13 Entertainment: +2 1/2 Content: -1

PBS television viewers who laugh at Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) on his weekly 30-minute sitcom may find 91 minutes of his rubber face a bit tiresome. He seldom speaks, but his distorted facial expressions and body language make dialogue unnecessary. In BEAN, he plays a child-like employee of a prestigious London art gallery. He has been chosen to accompany the original "Whistler's Mother" oil painting to its new location in a Los Angeles gallery. Responsibility for receiving the $50 million acquisition and its security has been placed on David (Peter MacNicol), who sees this as a milestone in his blossoming career as a museum curator. Assuming that Bean has impeccable credentials as an art connoisseur, he addresses him as Dr. Bean. David even insists that the visitor stay in his home, much to his wife, Alison's (Pamela Reed) dismay. Bean creates one disaster after another, beginning with his strange behavior at the LA airport that leads to his arrest. BEAN's hilarious non-stop slapstick antics will particularly amuse young teenagers.

Bean's mentality of an eight or nine-year-old boy gives him an air of innocence. When he goes into a men's restroom, he splashes water down the front of his pants. To dry them, he stands in front of the hand dryer, then climbs on it, gyrating all the time. When someone walks in during this bizarre behavior, he thinks Bean is some kind of a pervert. Other attempts to dry his trousers also make him look perverted. On a ride through Los Angeles in a convertible he waves enthusiastically at a bearded tattooed biker who waves back an obscene gesture, and Bean copies the biker's greeting several times. After one especially trying day, David takes Bean to a bar, where they both get drunk. In the end, however, David and Bean learn from each other about the importance of friendship and family. Only one moderate crude word, plus one "God help me" slips into the dialogue, surprising for a PG-13 movie. David's young son confides in Bean that he can't sleep because he keeps thinking about naked women. Also, there's a brief view of a poster with a side view of a naked woman sitting in a chair. The only violence is a brief police chase and some gunshots fired. The gratuitous obscene gestures and the bizarre behavior in the men's restroom prevent Preview's recommendation.

Preview Reviewer: Mary Draughon
Distributor: Gramercy Pictures, 9247 Alden Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90048