Paddington – Review by David Turpin

Directed by: Paul King

Starring: Ben Whishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Nicole Kidman

Paddington purists may balk at the latest – and by some distance the splashiest – screen incarnation of Michael Bond’s lovable little bear. Paddington himself is now a state-of-the-art CGI creation, whose charmingly vague Peruvian origins have been elaborated upon in a no-expense-spared prologue featuring an earthquake and the voice of Imelda Staunton. What’s more, his signature line, “I think I’m in trouble again”, is nowhere to be heard, despite the fact that – over the ensuing 90 minutes – he gets into all manner of trouble, much of it on an epic scale fairly alien to Bond’s original stories. The good news, however, is that taken on its own terms, this newfangled big-screen Paddington is a delight.

The rumour mill began to churn earlier in the year, when Colin Firth departed the production, leaving Ben Whishaw to fill in as Paddington’s voice. The change was comprehensively for the better. Whishaw’s gentle tenor is a perfect fit for Paddington’s youthful innocence, and he brings a poignant vulnerability to the part that lies outside Firth’s wheelhouse. The animation of the character is also excellent, although some older viewers may miss the comforting tactility of earlier stop-motion incarnations.

The Browns, the Notting Hill family who adopt Paddington, have been tastefully updated (although their presumably astronomical wealth is glossed over) and are now headed by Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins, with Samuel Joslin and Madeleine Harris embodying the younger generation relatively painlessly. Bonneville has the broader part, particularly when called upon to disguise himself as a cleaning lady, and he handles it creditably – although he’s on less sure footing with a predictable eleventh hour action hero transformation. As Mrs. Brown, Hawkins is a standout. Playing the part without a trace of condescension, she’s a calm delight at the centre of a storm of slapstick. Even incorrigible ham Julie Walters is effectively used, playing Mrs. Bird – a housekeeper in Bond’s stories who is here repurposed as a more class-neutral unspecified relative who seems to simply enjoy cleaning.

At the other end of the spectrum, villainy comes in the form of Nicole Kidman, essaying the part of a glamorous taxidermist with diabolical plans to stuff Paddington. One of the only A-list actresses who ever seems to do anything for the fun of it, Kidman seizes upon the opportunity to extend a recent streak of high camp roles that includes Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy (2012) and Park Chan-Wook’s Stoker (2013). Her no-excuses baddie is also something to treasure at a time when phony character shading and glib revisionism is robbing children’s cinema of exactly the kind of delightful nastiness that thrills its audience.

As directed by Mighty Boosh accomplice Paul King, Paddington sometimes plays as a grab-bag of English comic styles, with a particular fondness for Peter Cook. At other times it shares a tonal similarity with British-set Disney trifles such as Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) and One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing (1975), crossing tea-and-biscuits cosiness with rather American razzmatazz. The result isn’t always the smoothest ride. Some of the music cues, especially, are disappointingly obvious (for instance in a genuinely stirring late action scene that really doesn’t need to be goosed by a few bars of the Mission: Impossible theme) and a strain of toilet humour will no doubt cause Bond aficionados to blanch.

These are minor missteps, however, and the crazed patchwork feel of the enterprise has its own charm, particularly as it echoes the warmly inclusive subtext about the social benefits of immigration. Presenting Paddington himself as an emblem for London’s diversity (a theme underscored by the presence of a group of Caribbean musicians, as well as a brief glimpse of the kindertransport), King’s film has a pleasingly sincere core beneath its abundant silliness. It’s an early Christmas treat that should delight children – and dismay UKIP into the bargain.