Paddington 2 (2018)

Until a few months ago, I had never read a Paddington Bear book in my life, so I brought no nostalgia to this viewing. Ordinarily, I'm leery of live-action adaptations of kiddie books with CG animal stars (Christopher Robin being an exception because Disney already had practice with the franchise), but this one didn't get a Stuart Little 2 reception. Indeed, it was astoundingly successful. Would I be about the only reviewer not to love it?

The possibly adolescent cub (Ben Whishaw) has been living with his adoptive human family, the Browns (Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, and Julie Walters as the housekeeper), in London for some time now, but he hasn't forgotten his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) back in Peru. He hopes to earn enough for a unique antique book for her birthday present. Alas, he spills its whereabouts to neighbor Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), who secretly knows its value as a treasure map and has the skills to steal it and get away via disguise and stage magic. What's worse, Paddington, in his attempt to stop the unidentified thief, ends up taking the fall and going to prison. The Browns do what they can to find the real thief, while Paddington makes do with a different sector of humanity for company.

Sound like a recipe for a blockbuster to you? I think you have to be in the target age range not to find the plot hackneyed. And not to find it strange that Paddington gets convicted so easily, without the stolen merchandise being found. Or that everybody, even those who never heard of him or his rare species before, treats a bear pretty much like an adult human, apart from tolerating his occasional appearance "in the fur." Only a zealous, over-legalistic neighbor (Peter Capaldi) fears him, and not in the way we normally fear bears.

Of course, Paddington is hardly formidable. He's not only small but gentle, veering on polite even by British standards, and never truly angry. His insistence on seeing the good in everyone is endearing to the most hardened criminal...insofar as there are any herein. The only ways he causes trouble are through unvarnished honesty, fish-out-of-water ignorance, and frequent clumsiness (must his signature favorite food be so sticky?).

I will give the filmmakers credit on that last score. The slapstick is well done; I could just imagine the laughs in a theater. Appreciate the Chaplin tribute, too. And while the rest of the humor is hardly more highbrow, it never gets vulgar enough to disconcert me.

Grant is decidedly the other star of this program as well as the other major source of humor, and I'm not surprised that he had fun going against type. Phoenix is a talented actor whose career has tanked entirely because he doesn't play well with others. At his home base, he pretends to converse with classic stage characters, because who else would suffice? He could be the hammiest nonsuper human villain in a family feature this side of Cruella de Vil and Count Olaf. I'll also note "Knuckles" McGinty (Brendan Gleeson), the cook dreaded by fellow prisoners until Paddington works his charm.

Basically, the people are no more credible herein than in a typical Muppet movie, with less of an air of parody. The handful of adventure sequences, which mildly vindicate the PG rating, also require a lot of suspension of disbelief. No wonder it gets labeled comedy first and foremost.

As usual, what I like most are the heartwarming aspects. Paddington has a positive influence on the lives of almost everyone he meets. Even Phoenix gets a somewhat happy ending. And some moments are actually poignant enough to move me.

Overrated? A bit. Maybe I'd like it better if I'd grown up with the books or seen the previous movie, and I don't plan to do the latter. But neither do I regret spending 103 minutes watching.