When discussing the original Paddington, the word “miracle” tends to creep into my vocabulary. And maybe, perhaps, that is overstating the case a tad, but when you consider the bottomless vortex of candy-colored suck that is the children’s entertainment industry (if I have to hear that gosh-darned mother-flipping PJ Masks theme song ONE MORE TIME…), a movie like Paddington that was not only sweet and funny but loaded end-to-end with legitimately hilarious gags, beautiful production design, editing, and cinematography, and a truly wise and loving heart, it does indeed feel a bit like a miracle.
And, somehow, the original creative team came back for seconds and delivered a film that is every bit as funny, every bit as beautiful, and every bit as kind as that first film.
As co-writer and director, Paul King has taken the beloved book series by the late Michael Bond and crafted an indelible pair of films, each of which deserves to reside in places of honor in your home. Paddington 2, now available on DVD, Blu-ray, and other home media, is not only the best children’s film of this still-young year, it’s one of the year’s best films, period.
Picking up some time after the first film, Paddington 2 finds young bear Paddington (voiced once more by Ben Whishaw, delightful as ever) settled into his life in London with his adoptive family, the Browns. The Browns are each dealing with a different crisis of everyday life, including Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville) struggling with a mid-life crisis; Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins) craving adventure; Judy (Madeleine Harris) throwing herself into a hobby after a bad break-up; and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) trying to affect a new, ‘cooler’ personality now that he is getting deep into his teens.
Life in the family’s home in Windsor Gardens has a happy flow, with Paddington as a small but beloved nucleus for the disparate members of the community. The film’s plot kicks in via Paddington’s desire to purchase a rare pop-up book for his beloved Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton, somehow conveying so much warmth in her brief vocal performance as an elderly bear that I retroactively forgive her for Dolores Umbridge [well, almost]).
Paddington’s attempts to raise money for the book result in the slapstick mayhem that is the signature of this series, but even in the early, episodic portion of the film, King finds ways to illustrate the generosity of spirit that informs this character and the movies and stories around him. One of my favorite subplots in the film plays out almost entirely in the margins, as a small, almost throwaway act of kindness on Paddington’s part inadvertently brings two lonely people together, their relationship growing and deepening in the background as the film progresses.
But just when Paddington is close to making enough money to purchase the book, it is stolen by a mysterious figure who we the audience quickly recognize as Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant, having indescribable amounts of fun), an actor who has taken narcissism and self-delusion to new heights of lunacy. Phoenix has his own agenda with the book in question, but poor Paddington is framed for the theft and thrown into prison. While the Browns desperately search for the real thief, Paddington ends up remaking the slammer in his own image, starting with a terrifying enforcer known as “Knuckles” McGinty (Brendan Gleeson, having maybe more fun than even Grant).
How Paddington wins Knuckles to his side, and how one little bear’s dedication to good manners and good deeds leads to an overhaul in the criminal justice system in Britain, these are all things best left for you, the viewer, to discover on your own. As with the first film, the script by King and Simon Farnaby is deceptively brilliant in how it lays out story points and beats that seem completely random, only to spring them back on you deeper into the film, revealing a set-up/payoff system every bit as carefully laid out and perfectly executed as any of the Cornetto Trilogy, or the golden age of Zemeckis and Gale comedy screenplays.
The returning cast (which includes merry appearances by Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters, as well as a snarling Peter Capaldi) are still perfectly tuned to the energy of this franchise and never miss a step playing off a character that is not physically there.
(Sidenote: It must be noted that Hawkins’ subsequent work in The Shape of Water makes her turn as Mrs. Brown a wee bit more…complicated, then it was last time. There’s one underwater sequence that so unwittingly recalls a bit from Shape that your mind can’t help but worry what exactly Mrs. Brown is gonna do to that bear when he comes of age.)
The new cast slides right in as well. Gleeson takes palpable glee in his turn as a cartoonishly tough (but sensitive!) bruiser, afforded at last a chance to exercise the killer comic timing that has always rested underneath that hangdog Irish face.
But Grant is who you are almost certainly going to leave the film thinking and talking about. Grant has always had a healthy disdain for his own public image, and his willingness (eagerness, even) to make an absolute ass of himself has served him well over the years. But he may have reached a new peak of Hugh Grant-ness this time out, tearing into each fresh facet of pomposity and ludicrous vanity, always with a twinkle in his eye.
And with Phoenix, Paddington 2 neatly addresses one of the few problems I had with the original film: The villain. Now, don’t get me wrong: Nicole Kidman was to die for as a renegade taxidermist hell-bent on adding Paddington to her collection. But having a character be so violently, irredeemably evil clashed with the sunny disposition of the rest of the film. Paddington the film and Paddington the character argued for the ability of flawed people to overcome their biases and learn to become their best self, and having a Tasmanian devil of murder as an antagonist threw that off just a tad.
Phoenix Buchanan is plenty evil his own self, but A) Grant, by virtue of playing things completely over the top and by being, you know, Hugh Grant, is so silly and unthreatening a threat that you’re never really in doubt that Paddington and the Browns will outwit him, and B) the payoff to the Phoenix storyline neatly ties into another plot in such a way as to enrich both with the idea that change and betterment are possible for everyone, no matter how seemingly lost.
That’s the sneaky substance beneath the live-action cartoon aesthetic of these films. King pushes that aspect even further in this one than the first, at one point going so far as to transform the world of the film into a giant, living pop-up book. But as cheerily silly as the Paddington films are, they are both utterly sincere in their plea for empathy towards others and for kindness towards all things. Paddington 2 challenges its hero on these beliefs at multiple points, and that the bear’s innate decency is so challenged only makes its triumph all the more resonant. At their very core, both Paddington films deeply love people no matter their shape, size, or appearance, and that celebration of diversity and community gives both films, especially this one, a surprising emotional heft.
It can be hard sometimes to believe those decent, uplifting things about other people. But Paddington Brown believes them, and thanks to these films, I believe in him.