Paddington (2014, PG)

To celebrate the new Who season, here’s a Peter Capaldi review – like the old days!  Going into Paddington, my guess was “decent for a kids’ movie,” but I was impressed at how much I liked it.  It’s a fun film with great visual design, surprisingly sly humor, and a great, likeable cast.

Based on a children’s series, Paddington is the story of a young (talking) bear discovered by a London family at Paddington station (where he gets his name.)  His rare, highly-intelligent breed from Peru loves England, thanks to their encounters with a British explorer decades earlier, but Paddington is the first to actually go there.  Yet, his English intel is outdated; not all strangers are friendly, and he’s not instantly taken in by a sympathetic family a la evacuated children during WWII.  Instead, he only just manages to score a one-night stay with the mostly-unwelcoming Brown family.  The clumsy but optimistic bear works hard to understand his new surroundings and be accepted, hoping to find a permanent home by winning over his temporary family.

Capaldi plays the Browns’ neighbor, Mr. Curry, who’s not at all sure about the idea of a bear moving in next door.  He proves an easy mark for the chief villain of the piece, an obsessed taxidermist, and soon finds himself in the role of something like a comic henchman.

The comedy in his subplot is a bit broader than a lot of the film’s humor, which isn’t my favorite, but Mr. Curry also ties into what is, for me, the most unexpected aspect of the film.  He’s used to explore a major theme:  Paddington’s situation as an analogy for that of newly-arrived immigrants.  Curry doesn’t want “that sort” in the neighborhood and is susceptible to slippery-slope fear-mongering about how “it starts with just one bear and then before you know it…”  He even makes disparaging remarks about the “jungle music” he expects Paddington probably listens to.  So, even though the role itself isn’t all that spectacular, it’s used to make some pretty neat connections to issues of immigration, xenophobia, and multiculturalism.  Which, I have to say, is not something I was expecting from the movie where the CGI bear floods the bathroom!

The film features Hugh “Lord Grantham” Bonneville, Austen alum Sally Hawkins, and Nicole Kidman, with voice cameos from Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon.  Our main bear is voiced with warmth by Ben Whishaw a.k.a. The Hour’s Freddie and a stunning Richard II.

Accent Watch

London, only a little wobbly.

Recommend?

In General – If you’re at all into family movies, I would.  It’s sweet, funny, and pretty clever.

PC-wise – Maybe.  It’s a decent-sized role with some fairly amusing scenes.

Warnings

A little scariness for youngsters and some kiddish gross-out humor.