You may recall my failed attempts last week at convincing my kids to see “Mr. Bean’s Holiday.” Sixteen-year-old Lex was always up for it, but his two younger siblings were adamantly opposed because, quote, “Mr. Bean is stupid.” (This led me to a theory that Mr. Bean is uncool, and my kids want to be cool, at least until they become teenagers when, evidently, it’s okay to self-identify as a nerd even when one has actually become cool.) Over the course of the week my nine-year-old daughter weakened and this morning for some reason my five-year-old son relented, and we were off to see “Mr. Bean’s Holiday.”

It was terrific fun.

Surely no one reading this needs any further discourse on Rowan Atkinson’s comedic skills. But what became evident throughout the movie was the joy in it — the simple, childlike pleasure in being foolish. One of the subplots concerns a boy of 10 or 12 whom Mr. Bean is trying to reunite with his parents in Cannes. Later, Bean and the boy wind up separated as well, and when we discover what the boy was up to sans Bean it turns out he was adopted by an Afro Cuban jazz band traveling between gigs, where the kid had the time of his life. And isn’t that really what so much of 10- or 12-year-old boyhood is about — adventure? Hijinx? I’m sure other movies, especially the American comedies, would have shown him in increasing peril; here, he’s off on a lark. Every bit of “Mr. Bean’s Holiday” was like that: silly, upbeat, and sunny. When the movie ended the audience applauded, and when we stepped out all three kids proclaimed their love for “Mr. Bean.” Outside, the world seemed brighter.

Not for most Americans, though, as The New York Times reports here. Perhaps there’s something wrong with you if like Mr. Bean or, well, goofy fun. Last week in one of my classes I shared my appreciation for Mr. Bean and one or two students snorted. “There goes your credibility,” one said. But I’m not seeking credibility from anyone else; I know what I like and I know why I like it and I’m capable of expressing it — and that makes me cool.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 10:24 pm and is filed under On seeing, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.