Happy, happy, happy! Paddington 2 is a light, exuberant froth of a film which, despite the occasional sad moment exists to remind us that good things can happen if you expect them to.
Picking up where Paddington left off, this episode in ursine adventure sees Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) seeking the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton), now passing her senior years in a home for retired bears in Peru. This - a pop-up book of London – he finds amongst the stock of the ever-friendly Mr Gruber (Jim Broadbent): but if he wants to buy it, he will also need to find £500 in ready cash.
So Paddington turns his paw to odd jobs around the neighbourhood. He has almost earned the required amount when – horrors! - the book is stolen by failed actor turned dog-food commercialist Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), who is aware of clues to a secret fortune hidden in the book’s pages. Paddington gives chase but, in the inevitable mix-up that follows he is arrested, and brought to court before a seriously dyspeptic judge (Tom Conti)
(The latter’s bad temper is perhaps not totally unrelated to a barbering incident involving scalping, marmalade and the inadvertent setting off of an automated sprinkler system. Ooops!)
Sent down for ten years – and people say we are soft on crime nowadays! – Paddington quickly makes friends with the assorted loveably rogueish convicts, including Knuckles McGinty (Brendan Gleeson). Desperate, though, to prove his innocence, he escapes and goes in pursuit of Buchanan.
Cue train pursuit involving at least two steam engines racing down the lines to Bristol from Paddington station, along tracks that resemble nothing on the actual route, and the film speeds to a fine and positive climax. Right restored: villainy punished; and everything in its proper place.
If you are looking for realism, forget it! By which I don’t just mean the talking bear. For this is the child’s bedtime version of England, in which failing middle managers like Mr Brown can still afford a large family house in central London, the police decide who goes to prison and a teenage girl can set up a successful newspaper in the basement.
It is a mythic England (very definitely England, rather than UK) composed of diverse stereotypes, from newsagents to dustbin collectors, plus cartoon nuns and bishops, all living together in perfect harmony. Well, apart from Mr Curry (Peter Capaldi), who brings to his role as angry jobsworth-cum-local-busybody a touch of the Malcolm Tucker’s (but sans expletive: this is a film for children, after all!). An idealised 1960’s version of England, by Julie Andrews out of Mary Poppins, transposed to the 21st century.
The cast reads like a who’s who of contemporary British comedy, with walk-on parts for, seemingly, anyone who is anyone, from Richard Ayoade to Joanna Lumley to Ben Miller. There is less disaster – the first film in the franchise made much of Paddington’s capability to turn any and every situation into comic fiasco – more character. The Brown family emerge as individuals, from the needs-an-outlet swimming ambition of Mrs Brown (Sally Hawkins) to the gotta-be-cool teenageness of Jonathan (Samuel Joslin).
Hugh Grant makes a fine villain, and seems to be enjoying his role greatly. And, perhaps bravely for a film that is essentially a slapstick comedy, various moments in Paddington’s journey get played for pathos. Not often: but there are times when a tear is called for.
Overall, there is an optimism, a cheeriness to Paddington 2 that is sadly lacking in much film today: even in films targeted at children.
It is not great film-making: this is no masterpiece. Still, it harks back to narratives and characters that fans of Ealing comedy will find very familiar. Above all, it is a happy film. If you leave the cinema unhappy after watching Paddington 2, then you have no heart. Either that or you ARE Mr Curry!
Three and a half stars
