This movie has a lot of fans. I’m not one of them. I thought it was all right at first, but it rapidly slid downhill, much like Paddington hurtled down the stairs in the bathtub when he flooded the Browns’ house. I have to confess I fell asleep half an hour before the end (at home, not the cinema!) so I had to read about how the plot was resolved. The original first book, A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, is a classic, first published in 1958. The film, directed by Paul King, who also wrote the screenplay, is based partly on this and takes inspiration generally from the characters in the book series.
The book explains how Paddington ended up living with the Brown family in London, having emigrated from Peru. He then has various amusing mishaps. I expected the film to turn this collection of episodes into a feature-length plot, so I didn’t mind about the quest to find the explorer who had visited the bears in Peru (this backstory explains why Paddington speaks correct English and is obsessed with marmalade). I hated the addition of a taxidermist villain, Nicole Kidman, who uses her allure to persuade their neighbour Mr Curry (Peter Capaldi) to help her plot to kill and stuff Paddington. She finds out what street the Browns live on by tying up and torturing a taxi driver (a pointless cameo by Matt Lucas). Why spoil the gentle tone of the Paddington stories with such a horrible idea and with a clichéd villain too?
The character of Paddington, voiced by Ben Whishaw, was true to the book and he was animated in a believable way. He keeps his old red hat throughout, however, while in the book, a shopping trip results in smarter hats and a blue duffel coat. Rather oddly, in the film this coat was from Mrs Bird who had apparently kept it in her wardrobe for several decades. Regarding Mrs Bird (Julie Walters), I didn’t see the point of keeping her in the story, as she is described as an ‘old relative’, rather than the housekeeper who, in the book, runs the house so efficiently that even Mr Brown is afraid of her. Mr and Mrs Brown (Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins) were somewhat similar to their book counterparts, with added quirks. The children had been modernised, which is to be expected, but moody emo Judy was very different from the blonde enthusiastic Judy in the book, who is actually the keenest to bring Paddington home. I liked the use of real locations, including Paddington Station (if you visit the station, look out for the bear statue which predates the film). There were some well-crafted comedy sequences and effective usage of songs for different moods, but I found this film the opposite of heartwarming. I would rather watch the stop-motion TV series from the 1970s, which was scripted by Michael Bond himself and conveyed the gently humorous, very English tone of the books.
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