Man vs Baby review: Mr Bean meets Home Alone with a delightfully twisted Christmas spin!

Man vs Baby is the perfect Christmas gift that wraps a bundle of nostalgia with a whole lot of fun, all while spreading some much-needed Christmas cheer!

Christmas is that time of the year when whether we celebrate it in grand, glittering ways like the rest of the world or not, it still quietly invites us to slow down. It’s the season of curling up with a hot cup of cocoa, letting the exhaustion of the year finally catch up with us and preparing to say goodbye to everything we’ve lived through. It doesn't snow where I live but our winters come wrapped in thick fog, sweaters pulled close, heaters working overtime and long, hushed nights. In moments like these, a Christmas movie feels less like entertainment and more like comfort. But while most Hallmark Christmas movies offer predictable festive warmth, they rarely go beyond it. This year, Man vs Baby does.

If your childhood, like mine, involved watching Mr Bean stumble into trouble only to dig himself into deeper chaos while trying to fix it, this one feels tailor-made for you. Rowan Atkinson isn’t just an actor to me, he isMr Bean. For the longest time, I didn’t even know his real name; he was simply that man who made silence funnier than words. And in this film, he brings that same old-school charm back just wrapped in Christmas chaos.

Atkinson plays Trevor, a separated father living alone in a small flat, working as a school caretaker. It’s his last day on the job, and he’s desperate to find better-paying work so he can afford his share of his daughter’s school fees. Just when life seems to be closing in on him, a job quite literally falls into his lap, along with something far stranger - a mysterious baby who was meant to play baby Jesus in a school Christmas play but whose origins no one can quite explain. What follows is classic chaos. Trevor takes up a house-sitting job in London for an extremely wealthy family who won’t be home for Christmas, only to find himself unexpectedly responsible for a baby, a large house, and an increasingly absurd series of mishaps. And suddenly, we’re in a delightful collision of Mr Beanand Home Alone that reigns in pure nostalgia with a festive twist.

Also Read: Oh. What. Fun. review: At best, this film is a modest tribute to the invisible labour mothers pour into Christmas!

From using expensive scarves as nappies, repeatedly losing the one key fob that grants access to the penthouse to wrestling with a dog and panic-shopping for a twelve-person Christmas feast on impossibly short notice, Trevor’s life spirals into comic madness while he's trying to unsuccessfully inform social services and the police about the baby who seems to have appeared out of thin air. Every gag feels familiar yet fresh. Trevor forgets the baby in the bin, puts a wine cork in its mouth to stop it from crying, and even leaves it alone in the flat for far too long to cause a mess. And while every accident is clearly planned to the last detail, it unfolds so naturally that it feels like a believable chain reaction, one small mistake leading to another, snowballing into a Christmas catastrophe that is oddly heartwarming.

Beyond the slapstick, though, the four episodes tap into something deeper - the loneliness of Christmas. Trevor is alone, not just physically but emotionally. His family has moved on, people around him appreciate his dedication but never pause long enough to ask how he’s doing. And yet, Trevor remains kind. He takes care of a baby that isn’t his responsibility, looks after a house and a dog that aren’t his own, and shows quiet generosity without expecting anything in return. That generosity is often mistaken for foolishness. The world takes advantage of him. But it’s also infectious. When a poor couple breaks into the house to steal food, Trevor feeds them instead and they repay his kindness later. One by one, people respond not to his clumsiness but to his humanity.

At its core, the series is about an ordinary man accidentally caught in extraordinary circumstances, doing his best to hold things together. It gently reminds us how easy it is to forget kindness, patience, and empathy, especially during a season meant to celebrate exactly those things. In a world that often feels rushed, cynical, and isolating, Man vs Babyarrives like a warm blanket on a foggy winter night. It may look like a silly Christmas comedy on the surface, but underneath, it’s a reminder of the simple joys of being human to each other, and for each other. And what better than Christmas to be reminded of that!

Man vs Baby is currently streaming on Netflix!

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