Aunt Lucy has disappeared into the Amazon and Paddington is on the case in his third cinematic outing. Here’s our Paddington In Peru review.
There’s a lot of expectation heading into the third film of a trilogy, which might explain why StudioCanal have already made it very clear that’s not what Paddington In Peru is. With a fourth film (and a TV series) given the green light, the pressure on Dougal Wilson’s first go in the director’s chair to deliver a Toy Story 3 or Return Of The King is reduced somewhat.
In hindsight, that might be a good thing. If watching Paddington 2 offered an emotional bruising from a very polite, if surprisingly violent, apex predator (I’ve yet to find a person alive who can watch the final five minutes of that film with dry eyes) then its follow-up is more like an enthusiastic nuzzling from a panda cub. It’s very sweet, sure, but one’s never quite clear whether it has full control of its limbs. While I left Paddington In Peru with the same warm-and-fuzzy feeling that inevitably follows two hours with the nation’s favourite bear, the toys-holding-hands-in-an-incinerator gut-punch you might expect from a closing chapter was conspicuously absent.
But there’s more to Paddington than an act of sentimental seppuku, and in plenty of ways the latest film still delivers. An undisclosed period after the last film, it’s business more-or-less as usual in the Brown household. Judy (Madeleine Harris) is applying for university; Jonathan has invented a series of Rube Goldberg machines to facilitate his gaming habit; Mrs Bird (Julie Walters) is trying to cross some jobs off her to-do list; Mr Brown (Hugh Bonneville) is under pressure to “embrace risk” from his new American bosses; and Mrs Brown (Emily Mortimer, replacing Sally Hawkins) just wants the family to spend some time together again…
Happily, an opportunity for the latter arrives in the post. Olivia Colman’s Reverend Mother, who runs Peru’s famous Home For Retired Bears, is a little worried about poor old Aunt Lucy. Once the heart and soul of bear-bingo night, she now spends her days shut in her room, pawing over maps with a magnifying glass and staring wistfully at photos of her young nephew. It’s enough to melt the stoniest of hearts.
Paddington, possessed of a heart made less of stone than pre-pectin marmalade, persuades the Browns to join him on a family holiday, where they find Aunt Lucy has mysteriously disappeared into the jungle. Cue a typically haphazard quest to track her (and, somewhat implausibly, the lost city of El Dorado) down – this time with a few more creepy-crawlies than your typical North London suburb…
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The slapstick icon of his generation is on fine form, even if he gets fewer chances to stretch his paws. An early escapade with a photo booth, a much-publicised boat ride and a burgeoning friendship with a local llama all give the young bear room to do what he does best. Charming visual nods to everything from The Sound Of Music and Raiders Of The Lost Ark to Steamboat Bill Jr inject just the kind of smart and cinephilic whimsy the series has always thrived on.
Like Hugh Grant before her, Colman completely steals the show as the ludicrously cheerful (occasionally to the point of song) Reverend Mother. If ever an actor were born specifically to star in the Paddington franchise, it would be her – rubber-faced and practically fizzing with the actor’s appallingly concealed glee, it’s hard not to count down the seconds waiting for her to reappear on screen.
Antonio Banderas, meanwhile, does a respectable job as the villain of the piece: a riverboat captain haunted by the ghosts of his ancestors. A brilliantly conceived montage of the silent-comedy deaths of his many forebears (all played, Kind Hearts And Coronets-style, by Banderas himself) serves as a highlight in a character otherwise lacking some of the mad comic precision of Nicole Kidman or Grant before him. Emily Mortimer likewise doesn’t get quite enough screentime to convincingly bed herself in as Sally Hawkins’ replacement, though what is there is far from distracting.
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But as the film chugs along through an exposition-dense first act, there’s a nagging sense that Paddington In Peru might be trying to spread its marmalade over a little too much bread. The gag rate just can’t compete with either of its predecessors, and the move to Peru needs enough introduction and explanation that the whole thing just lacks some of the effortless purity of Paddington 2 in particular. One or two cheeky nods to that last film only add to the sense this isn’t quite as brimming with ideas as it could have been…
But perhaps the comparison is unfair. The previous films are minor miracles of family filmmaking, both transcending the genre to make something as close to perfect as bear-based cinema has ever gotten. Paddington In Peru, by contrast, is merely a very good kids movie. It’s leagues ahead of much of the competition in both heart and execution – but go in expecting a masterpiece, and I’m not sure you’ll get your wish.
I’m sorry, Paddington – I can feel your hard stare already.
