Bernard and the Genie

This film is only about 70 minutes long so I’m not sure if this was a feature film or a TV movie (it does have the feel of a made-for-TV holiday special since it takes place during Christmas). The plot is sort of a low grade Bedazzled. Naïve Bernard (Alan Cumming, looking like he’s eleven years old) seems to be looked down by everyone, including his greedy supercilious boss (Rowan Atkinson, looking very devil-y) who doesn’t like how nice and generous Bernard is to their clients, and his girlfriend who has been sleeping with their best friend for years. It so happens that the previous year the girlfriend gave Bernard a fancy Arabian lamp, and unbeknownst to them a magic one, inhabited by an inexperienced genie (Lenny Henry).


The genie too has his own troubles, as he was a knifethrower who accidentally killed the daughter of a wizard, and was punished by spending an eternity in the lamp, and now everyone he used to know is dead. He gives Bernard everything he wants but of course as in all genie movies it is not as easy or happy as all that (at least at first).

The humor is broad due to the time difference/culture clash between the two characters--the genie enjoying all the modern day benefits, and trying to find a woman for Bernard--and the crazy SOB-ness that Rowan Atkinson always brings as the greedy and unscrupulous employer who trumps up an art theft charge against Bernard due to his wishing for the art in the first place. The girlfriend/best friend storyline didn’t have anything really new, and thankfully wasn’t in the movie too much, although they and Atkinson both get their comeuppance later. You can see how dated this movie is when Bernard wishes for a Big Mac and it comes in the foam box they used to have when I worked at McD’s (OMG, over 20 years ago now!), the bright 80s clothes the genie wears, and references to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

One nice minor touch was the sympathetic elevator operator who decked out the elevator (and himself) with Christmas decorations; he often offers to Bernard what he thinks are helpful anecdotes that don’t really make sense. The genie character was the broadest drawn of course when he was trying out all the modern things (washing his hair in the toilet bowl for one), and he had the most physical humor. There is also the nice girl, a cute department store elf that the genie tries to set Bernard up with. Eventually the genie wants to return home, despite forming a friendship with Bernard.