The very British film every family MUST see this Xmas
And, believe it or not, even Hugh Grant plays a blinder!
Time to spread the marmalade of joy across our best and most noble sandwiches, time to spread the glad tidings across the land — for Paddington Bear is going to be the surprise star of this Christmas and many more Christmases to come.
Not because he thwarts a burglar in his starring role in the new marks & Spencer festive TV advert, charming as that may be. it is more that his lovely new film, Paddington 2, is such a pitchperfect, genuinely heart-warming story of ever- so-good triumphing over big, bad evil that it is sure to become an instant classic.
Aided by an all- star British cast giving it everything they’ve got, plus a copperbottomed screenplay that rivets everything into place with clarity and pace, the film manages to strike exactly the right balance between appealing to children of all ages and charming those of us who have never stopped loving Paddington Bear.
The only sadness is that his originator, michael Bond, did not live to see this triumph. He died, aged 91, earlier this year, but he did, at least, live long enough to see his creation make his big-screen debut in 2014’s Paddington.
That much-loved film played it for laughs, but here, the same team have produced a sequel that surpasses all expectation and is better, deeper and richer than the original in all respects.
expecting to be mildly entertained, i left a preview screening earlier this week after guffawing, feeling a little happier about the world and, yes, brushing away a few tears. A (much improved) computer-generated bear with an affectingly expressive face and the hopeful, kindly voice of Ben Whishaw can do that to a girl.
The story finds our favourite chap with the battered red hat now happily ensconced with the Brown family in Windsor Gardens, London.
mr Brown (Hugh Bonneville) is having a midlife crisis, mrs Brown ( Sally Hawkins) expresses her artistic nature via the medium of colourful tights, and the children love Paddington with all their hearts. BRIGHT of eye and bushy of pelt, he remains rather small and rather sneezy, but all the neighbourhood loves him because he always believes in the best in everyone. ‘Aunt Lucy says that if we are kind and polite, the world will be nice,’ he explains early in the action.
many might wish she had passed on that important message to one terrible rogue involved in the film, sex- pest distributor Harvey Weinstein.
Yet the Paddington producers have severed all links with Weinstein’s company and are looking for a new one to distribute the film in North America.
meanwhile, Hugh Grant turns in a comic performance of deliriously campy delight. He stars as the wicked criminal Phoenix Buchanan, a cravat-wearing, ageing thesp in unfeasible tweeds who is reduced to advertising dog food.
He says he is not afraid of going to jail because he was ‘ in Les miserables for three years’ and is tickled pink when he is fooled during a phone call into thinking his agent (Joanna Lumley) has complimented him on his buttocks or, as she says, ‘buns’.
‘i’ve never had any complaints about mr and mrs Botty Cheek,’ he smarms.
How marvellous to see a nursery word such as ‘botty’ sneak into a British script. One which, it must be said, gets the big laughs without recourse to smut, fart jokes, kiddy crudery or adult rudery — a miracle in itself, but a very welcome one.
even hard-bitten film critics are calling Paddington 2 the best of the year. ‘An hour and 40 minutes of absolute joy,’ raved the radio Times.
‘An antidote for anyone who finds the madness of the modern world a bit wearing. it’s probably possible to not absolutely love it, but it’s hard to see how,’ said empire magazine.
indeed, i love the way the cast ham it up like crazy, as if they had set the dials to ‘full panto’ and taken flight from there.
As antique-seller mr Gruber, Jim Broadbent deploys the kind of mittel- european accent last heard in a bad production of Fiddler On The roof. Peter Capaldi, as a horrible neighbourhood watchman, and Brendan Gleeson, as safe-cracker Knuckles Mcginty (‘that’s Knuckles with a capital N,’ he says), provide the villainy, while Julie Walters reprises her role as housekeeper mrs Bird in a Scottish accent worthy of Brigadoon.
The plot revolves around Paddington seeking the perfect present for Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday and coming across a beautifully drawn pop-up book of London landmarks in mr Gruber’s shop.
it is the ideal gift, but too expensive for a bear of little means, so he decides to embark on a series of odd jobs to buy it. But when Hugh Grant’s Phoenix steals the book and frames Paddington for the crime, the game is on.
in a caper that gallops across London, everyone tries to unmask the true thief in a city that has never looked lovelier.
From Paddington Station itself to St Paul’s Cathedral; from Portobello road and the canal sides of Little Venice to the ice cream- coloured houses in Paddington’s street ( actually Chalcot Crescent in Primrose Hill), the capital is utterly a-glow in a kind of scarlet-hued Santavision — even though it is not set at Christmas-time, it just feels that way.
Time-wise, we are in an irresistible Nostalgia-Never-Never-Land where the past is also the future. The Shard is on the skyline, rap music is in the ether, but there are no mobile phones or iPads. People still utilise tape recorders, coins are used to make calls from cherryred telephone boxes and also for fares on the hop-on buses, which are still manned by conductors.
Above all, perhaps Paddington 2 is affecting because it seems so beautifully British at a time when many of us seem to have forgotten what that even means any more.
Threaded through Paddington’s adventures are a strong sense of fair play, the notion that decency will triumph and the feeling that a good gingham tablecloth and even better manners are the cornerstones of civilisation. MICHAEL BOND wrote his first book, A Bear Called Paddington, in 1958. Sales of that story and its sequels are now approaching 40 million, while a generation of children grew up watching the stop-motion puppet Paddington on teatime television, memorably voiced by michael Hordern.
As a nation, we have always loved our bears, from Winnie-the-Pooh to rupert, Bungle, Baloo and Yogi Bear. But would it be wrong to suggest that we love Paddington best of all?
For now, in what may be his greatest incarnation yet, he reminds us that London is still a place to dream and that the good guys sometimes win.
in his world of toffee- apple crampons and marmalade recipes, Paddington proves himself resourceful and adorable in a film that is cute, but not twee, sentimental, but not syrupy, with some really big laughs along the way.
Above all, this film is a message of love that will touch all souls, everywhere, for generations.
michael Bond’s legacy lives on in our hearts. He would be so proud. PADDINGTON 2 is released nationwide tomorrow.