Mostly Bearable
Director Paul King’s sincere-but-not-saccharine touch is noticeably absent from the third Paddington film but it’s Paddington. It works fine.
Paddington in Peru
Director: Dougal Wilson • Writers: Mark Burton, Jon Foster, James Lamont, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, based on the books by Michael Bond
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas
UK • 1hr 46mins
Opens Hong Kong Jan 29 • I
Grade: B
Last we saw our favourite Peruvian bear transplant Paddington (who sounds exactly like Ben Whishaw), he was doing a 10-year bit for a robbery actually committed by narcissistic, treasure-mad actor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant kicking off his late-career Bitchy Phase, which is fabulous) and winning over gen-pop with is his marmalade sandwiches and pink prison uniforms. Of course he’s exonerated in Paddington II, and when we pick up with him and the Browns again in Paddington in Peru, he’s marvelling over ownership of his very own UK passport, and planning a visit home to the Andes to see his beloved Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton). The Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman, and everything is better with Olivia Colman) at the Home for Retired Bears where Lucy lives is worried about her health and has written to urge him to come home.
Thus begins the third entry into the alarmingly appealing Paddington series, started back in 2014 by Wonka director Paul King (a producer here), whose light touch and unselfconscious sense of humour is obviously absent this time around. That’s not to say that Paddington in Peru doesn’t have its charms; the foundation is there so it’s hard for first time feature director Dougal Wilson not to find them. But there’s a fizziness to the comedy in the first two films that missing, though it’s still a mostly enjoyable family romp with some gentle immigration and identity ideas thrown in for good measure.
Did mom change her hair?
While Paddington is fretting over Lucy, Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) is trying his best to find his place at work, his very British ad agency freshly purchased by brash Americans who demand he embrace risk. At home, Mary (Emily Mortimer, replacing Sally Hawkins, no idea why) is feeling distant from her kids, bud inventor for the couch potato demo Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) and Judy (Madeleine Harris), the former sinking into online life and the latter getting ready to fly the coop for university. Aunt Lucy’s malaise is the perfect reason for the Browns, which includes Mrs Bird (Julie Walters), to head off to South America and re-connect as a family. A stretch? Maybe. The family-on-a-trip trope is usually a franchise death knell, but it at least makes narrative sense here given Paddington’s origins.
Once there, the Reverend Mother tells them Lucy’s gone missing in the Peruvian Amazon (played largely by Colombia, much to the chagrin of Peruvians) so the gang hires riverboat captain Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) and his daughter Gina (Carla Tous) to take them to where Lucy has left hints as to where she’s gone, Rumi Rock, and for some reason fucking Jungle Cruise breaks out. Anyway, Rumi Rock is rumoured to be the hidden gateway to the lost city of El Dorado, the resting place of a treasure trove of Incan gold not already stolen by foreigners. Much dastardly double-crossing and hidden identity revelations ensue as Paddington goes looking for Lucy but also finds his roots.
The cast is as approachable as ever, with newcomer Banderas bearing (sorry) the unfortunate burden of trying to top Grant’s heel turn in Paddington II. It’s a big ask but Banderas is nothing if not game, and his Cabot has some hilariously understated comic moments with his Conquistador ancestors, bolstered by flawless delivery. Colman is a master of delivering absurd dialogue with a discordant grin, and she shares some truly inspired moments with fellow veteran Walters. Jim Broadbent is back in a cameo as antiques dealer Mr Gruber, Cruella’s Joel Fry briefly turns up as a postie, and Peggy Carter herself, Hayley Atwell is glorious as the American c-suite hard case. Sadly, Peter Capaldi as the Browns’ cantankerous neighbour Mr Curry does not make an appearance.
Ancestry is key to Paddington in Peru’s themes this time around, and the film doubles down on its condemnation of narrow world-views and nationalism, and the increasing inability to accept anyone can be, oh, say, Peruvian as well as British, and that by making one choice it doesn’t negate another. It’s in line with the franchise given Paddington II’s delicate anti-Brexit subtext and pooh-pooh of the parochialism that birthed it. Polite pooh-pooh, of course. But first and foremost Paddington in Peru is a sweet, sturdy, not-too-sentimental family entertainment, unless of course you squick at nudity. Paddington doffs that coat near the end. Escandalo!