Paddington (2015) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

We all have big hearts to share, but sometimes, the world is never ready for the fun that comes with it.


PLOT


Based on Michael Bond’s children literature franchise, Paddington follows the titular taking Bear who is part of a rare species. He grew up in Peru, adopted by his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) and Uncle Pastuzo (Michael Gambon), until an earthquake takes the life of the latter. Wanting the young bear to live a safer life, Aunt Lucy sends the cub to London, hoping to take shelter of an explorer that discovered them 40 years prior. As for her, she will go to a retired home for elderly bears. Stowing away in a cargo ship, the cub reaches London and adopts his name from the titular train station. At the station, he meets the Brown family who are intrigued of seeing a talking bear. The family includes: The patriarch Henry, his wife Mary, their children Judy & Jonathan, and housekeeper Mrs. Bird. Henry doesn’t believe his story in wanting to reunite with the explorer, but the rest of the family does and Mary allows him to stay in their home. On the first night, the cub would flood the bathroom on accident when not being familiar with the fixtures. Before going to sleep, he would write to his Aunt Lucy of how different the family is from one another: Henry has been overprotective towards his adventurous son since he had an accident involving custom rockets, despite being quite fun in his youth according to Mrs. Bird. Mary has been quite open minded as a painter artist and Judy feels unconfident despite studying multiple languages. Since he doesn’t know the name of the explorer, Mary would take him to the antique shop the following day. There, the owner Samuel Gruber (Jim Broadbent) notices the hat Paddington wears has a Geographers’ Guild stamp. Unintentionally, Paddington would catch a pick pocket and be respected by the neighborhood for his selflessness. The cub is denied access to the Guild’s archive, but sneaks in with Henry’s help to uncover through an archive film that the explorer’s name was Montgomery Clyde and the record of his expedition was erased. In the meanwhile, Montgomery’s daughter Millicent has grown to be a taxidermist and hopes to collect Paddington’s kind to be stuffed when she hears of a talking bear in London. She is able to track him down thanks to the Browns’ nosy neighbor, Mr. Curry, and her first attempt to capture him goes awry when Paddington starts a fire after unintentionally getting covered in scotch tape. When the Browns choose to not believe him for what happened, he chooses to find Montgomery on his own. Feeling bad of him having to leave to satisfy her husband, Mary would search for him day by day. Through a phone book, Paddington unknowingly and officially meets Millicent since he didn’t know who she was in the house without a mask. She takes him to the Natural History Museum and she admits to have been resenting her dad for never bringing a specimen of talking bears home. His pride led to his membership of the Guild being revoked and make ends meet with owning a petting zoo, thus her motive to taxidermy. He tries to escape, but she stops him with a tranquilizer. When Mr. Curry finds out her true intentions, he warns the Browns that the cub is in danger. They reach the museum and get inside through the sewers. They are then able to defeat Millicent when Paddington tosses his signature marmalade sandwich towards her, which attracts the attention of pigeons and Mrs. Bird knocks her down. Millicent would be sentenced to community service at the petting zoo and the film ends with Paddington being allowed to stay with the Browns permanently.


THOUGHTS


It had been a long time recalling if I ever read the books in my childhood, but I did remember some of the previous cartoons before the release of the film so I was familiar with what I’d be in for. Luckily, I was pleased with the end result that was a simple and oh so fun adventure. From the very start, Director Paul King assures we’re enjoying ourselves the whole time with a character that is more adorable than we would take for granted. Had Paddington not been blessed with fantastic visual effects and been casted with the right actor, no one would’ve believed in the character at all. Luckily, the combo is in full effect and it doesn’t disappoint. Ben Whishaw was the right choice to voice the cub because he was just a natural in portraying him the kindest soul on Earth. All he wants is to find a home and despite his clumsiness, whether or not you’re laughing about that, he is able to gain it with one family who in turn had opened their hearts by him. It’s easy to be annoyed by Henry since helicopter parents are a dime a dozen, and yeah I’d be annoyed of one constantly sharing statistics of any possible danger no one thinks of daily. Having said that, Hugh Bonneville is able to show he does it with love and not for the sake of control. Making a child had him realize life is precious, and he just wants them to live longer than they can even anticipate. But just living in fear doesn’t make life fun and the only one that was able to get through to him was his wife. Sally Hawkins was awesome as Mary for bringing in the most compassion in the most ideal sense a parent can. Ironically, her relationship with Henry had gone from equals to polar opposites, which wasn’t a bad thing at all because that was her chance to bring out the best in him as much as possible. She was the only one who encourages to do what they want and she takes a chance with Paddington because being helpful is what makes her happy, even if she’s not sure how. If she doesn’t try, Henry would not follow suit. Julia Walters definitely made Mrs. Bird a standout because while being life of the party by distracting a security guard with some liquor, she knew the wisdom that came from being stern. She knew where Henry was coming from, but was still aware his perspective can’t be the way of life 24/7. If she didn’t say anything either, he wouldn’t grow to be lenient. Hell, even Paddington is able to teach the kids to still be themselves when their dad would say otherwise which goes a long way. Madeleine Harris portrayed Judy as a girl who was sassy because she didn’t know how to express until the bear taught her to embrace such a resource. Samuel Joslin showed Jonathan as the most fearless one because that is what his aspiring dream of being an astronaut and although his dad spent the most time being overprotective, the presence of Paddington reminded him to not give up on his dream since the bear didn’t give up on his goal either. With such a big heart, it’s kinda crazy people would not like the animal until seeing it firsthand. Peter Capaldi is flawlessly good in being bad as Mr. Curry because he is too arrogant to enjoy anything. He tries to be rid of the beat because that’s too much of a change for him to deal with in his neighborhood and not liking the bear never meant to have it killed, hence doing the right thing in warning the Browns. His attitude may have not changed in the sequel, but at least he never took his animosity that far again. Putting that aside, the real villain is easily Millicent and Nicole Kidman does it with ease. This is a character who rejects the bear for her family’s downfall more than her dad’s decisions. Shes openly greedy on capitalizing success that she will do anything for it, which includes killing animals. Killing for the fun of it like a poacher is the coldest thing and while she ain’t the first nor last kind of person to have this mindset, it’s a relief she gets an ideal mindset. Paddington may live on with his life and have multiple enemies he doesn’t tend to make, his heart will remain the same and that is what will bring us back each time. This movie holds up very well, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t notice things that could’ve been done differently. For example, where is the electricity coming from for the bears’ record player? If this is how they continue they continue to learn English, it’s weird we don’t see the contraption to make this work. And personally, I don’t think Aunt Lucy should’ve been so sure Paddington would be safe on his own since over 40 years have passed since she last saw Montgomery. Just because the jungle was the same, doesn’t mean cities will. And her not giving the cub a human name doesn’t make much sense either when she took care of him for so long. It’s even crazy how only the Browns are able to give notice to him when so many civilians passed by him throughout the day. This isn’t like the MCU where you can accept the unusual so easily. Continuity errors even factor when there was and wasn’t a set of legs for the bathtub between takes.  Also, where did Henry get the costume to disguise himself as a housekeeper within minutes after going inside the Guild’s headquarters. If you’re saying the housekeeper who left that costume has a cross dressing secret, that’s a lot of baggage to unfold. It’s even on Millicent to tell Mr. Curry what she was really gonna do because that would’ve helped her do what she wanted. Other than that, this movie rules. In short, Paddington is a family classic for knowing exactly when and how to make you smile. If those kind of films are up your alley, check this out.