Rowan Atkinson, in all his face-contorting glory, returns as the dim-witted goofball Mr. Bean in Mr. Bean's Holiday. While recent Hollywood trends in comedy aim for a quick, easy laugh (usually involving a certain amount of gross-out factor and bodily function humor), Atkinson's attempt to re-capture the magic of strictly physical comedy is an admirable goal. Unfortunately, Atkinson and director Steve Bendelack steamroll through a series of amusing (but not really funny) gags that have no sense of timing or reason.

Bean, the lucky winner of a holiday in France, has his bug-eyes set on arriving at his destination: the sun-soaked sandy beaches of Cannes. His bumbling journey takes him from Paris through the quaint countryside with many a mishap and misstep along the way. Through his klutzy antics, he separates a young boy from his father, encounters an aspiring actress on her way to the Cannes film festival, and crosses paths with an egotistical filmmaker named Carson Clay (Willem Dafoe). Unbeknownst to the clueless Bean, he has set in motion a series of events that will ultimately change their lives forever. Talk about God using the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. Just don't expect Mr. Bean to recognize it, though. He is determined to reach those sandy shores of Cannes, come hell or high water.

Therein lies the problem with Mr. Bean's Holiday: the destination for Bean (both physically and relationally) is anti-climactic. It is empty and unsatisfying—with lots of beautiful people and gorgeous scenery but nothing redeeming. His adventure through France was merely a series of pratfalls loosely strung together one after the other. In life, it is not always about the destination but the journey—as Mr. Bean's Holiday proves, we can easily miss glimpses of beauty and truth if our eyes are not open.