The good feeling and box office success generated by the first Paddington film, released in 2014, will likely continue thanks to Paul King’s return to the director’s chair. King co-writes the script with actor/comedian, Simon Farnaby, who he worked with on The Mighty Boosh TV series and his indie debut, Bunny and The Bull. Together, King and Farnaby maintain the balance between visual invention and comic dialogue that made the first film a welcome surprise. Michael Bond’s beloved children’s books about the accident prone, but kind-hearted talking bear from Peru have not lost their gentle humour in the two films to date and King’s sympathetic film transformation uses action and special effects with rare precision and wit.
In the film deux, Paddington has now become fully adopted by his human family, The Browns and his Notting Hill neighbors with the cranky exception of self-appointed community guardian (and likely closet Brexiter), Mr. Curry played by Peter Capaldi. When Paddington spots an old pop-up book about London in an antique shop that he used to show his Aunt Lucy back in Peru, the bear takes up a series of odd jobs to pay for the rare antique, but these attempts end in disaster. Then true calamity strikes when Paddington witnesses a break-in at the antique shop and the book disappears. Pad-dington is falsely accused of the theft and sent to prison.
The real culprit, Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), a vain C-list actor who earns a living in dog food commercials, has stolen the book with the knowledge that it contains clues to the whereabouts of stolen gems hidden decades ago. In prison, Paddington ends up befriending the short tempered “Knuckles” MGinty (Brendan Gleeson), an inmate who runs the grim kitchen with an iron hand. With the assistance of Knuckles and the other inmates, Paddington escapes prison and in a climatic cross-country train chase, he recovers the pop-up book and has his good name restored.
Outside of animation, there have been precious few family films in recent years that aren’t disproportionately slanted towards children or adolescents or seem cynically designed to sell as much merchandising as possible. I suppose this has often been the case with Hollywood as some of us of a certain age will recall being taken by parents to see such odd fare as The Railway Children (absent father accused of communism), Walkabout (sexual rite of passage in bleak out-back) and The Go-Between (child used as messenger by class crazed lovers) as a break from Disney fare.
Paddington 2, like its predecessor, is unlikely to provoke awkward questions from children, but it does have enough moments of light satire and spoofing to delight parents and adults in general. The scenes in the prison have a Roald Dahl quality and there is a hilarious end credit musical sequence that would warm the heart of Mel Brooks. Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville are back as Mr .and Mrs. Brown and Ben Wishaw reprises his voicing of Paddington. In addition to Capaldi and Gleeson, Julie Walters, Tom Conti, Eileen Atkins, Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhashar and other Brit film stalwarts flesh out the supporting roles with enthusiasm and brio. And as the case with Nicole Kidman as the evil taxidermist in the first film, the embodiment of diabolical evil is reincarnated to near perfection by Hugh Grant as Phoenix. This character with his penchant for camp disguise is perfectly suited to Grant’s brand of mock-seriousness.
While Paddington 2 will no doubt be marketed to the point of overkill, this should not dissuade viewers without children from seeing this film. Clocking in at just over 90 minutes, it is a textbook example of how to amuse and entertain without dumbing down or demeaning the spirit. If your inner child likes a tonic mix of wonder and laughter, Paddington 2 will leave you with a joyful buzz.
Director: Paul King
Writers: Simon Farnaby, Paul King, Michael Bond (“Paddington Bear” created by), Jon Croker (additional material)
Stars: Hugh Grant, Brendan Gleeson, Sally Hawkins, Ben Whishaw
Paddington 2 is on general release Friday November 10th.