Paddington 2, review: Bear maximum

Imagine a London where bears are accepted as persons and move about freely; a London where Aunt Lucy and her nephew Paddington board a bus and buy tickets for “One-and-a-half bears.” Imagine a bear named Paddington, so called because his adoptive human family find him at Paddington railway station. And imagine a bear that has the highest moral standards and sets the benchmark for ethics and courtesy, not only among regular humans, but even jailbirds. And imagine him going through adventures and thrills in his attempt to buy a gift for his Aunt’s 100^th birthday. If you can imagine all of the above, and more to go, you are in for some rollicking fun, of the bear maximum variety.

Paddington, the adorable bear, having has become popular in his community, offering people emotional support in various ways. In order to purchase an expensive, unique pop-up book of London’s landmarks from Mr. Gruber's antique shop, for his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday, Paddington performs several odd jobs and saves his wages. But the book is stolen from the shop, and the culprit escapes, resulting in Paddington being accused of the crime and arrested. Paddington wanted to send Aunt Lucy the book as a reminder of the time when she escorted Paddington to London and left him there.

Paddington had seen the thief escape and given him hot chase. The thief was almost caught, but then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Although Mr. Gruber does not believe that Paddington stole the book, with no evidence that the thief existed, Paddington is wrongly convicted and jailed. The Browns conduct an investigation of their own, to secure Paddington’s release, and after some hard effort, they believe that the thief is Phoenix Buchanan, an actor who does dog-food commercials, and lives in the same community.

Whilst in prison, Paddington befriends many of the inmates, including the short-tempered chèf, Knuckles, who cooks the same, bland food every day. One day, after complaining to Knuckles about the awful food, he is waiting to be clobbered, but, instead, the chèf, appoints Paddington as his assistant, impressed by the taste of his marmalade sandwich, that Paddington thrusts in his mouth during the scuffle. Meanwhile, the Browns work to clear Paddington's name, putting up sketches of the thief.

Buchanan begins using the pop-up book to locate a series of clues within London's famous landmarks, which he believes will unveil the location of a secret treasure. During their efforts to prove Paddington's innocence, the Browns encounter a fortune-teller who informs them that the stolen book leads to the hidden fortune of the original compiler, her ancestor, who was a trapeze artiste and whose life was cut short by a magician. The magician could not, however, find the treasure. Phoenix Buchanan is the grandson of the magician.

Not many films would have as much of a British feel to them as does the Paddington series. The pop-up book has clues that take you to various London landmarks, including a longish, hilarious scene at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The monument has more than religious value for the author of the Paddington Bear books, Michael Bond (Thomas Michael Bond, CBE), who lived close to the Paddington area in London, and who created ‘the marmalade loving bear from darkest Peru’, in 1958. Amazingly, it was almost at the same time that mystery/suspense author Agatha Christie published a novel called ‘4.50 from Paddington’, which was filmed and released as Murder, She Said. Bond died in June last year. He was remembered at a service at St Paul’s Cathedral on 14 November 2017. Paddington star Hugh Bonneville read out messages. Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin, who play his children, read tributes from the author’s fans. The author penned more than 200 books before his death, aged 91, following a short illness. Bond’s final book, to be published this year, is, in fact, set in St Paul’s.

Bond’s stories have been turned into screenplay by Paul King and Simon Farnaby (also an actor; Paddington, Mindhorn, Rogue One). Not having read the print version, I cannot comment on changes and additions, if any. What is obvious is that a lot of the plot points have been built around the screen charisma of Hugh Grant. There are ego trips and self-deprecation, in equal measure, including lines like this one from the Browns’ cantankerous housekeeper, Mrs. Bird, “Actors are some of the most despicable, devious people on the planet,” and linguistic laughs, à la  Knuckles McGinty, the terrorising cook: “I don't do nothing for no one for nothing,” and this contrived but nevertheless laugh-getting three-liner: Security Guard Barry (played by co-writer Simon Farnaby himself) at St. Paul’s Cathedral, “Attention all units: An unusually attractive nun is causing mayhem in the cathedral dome. Activate emergency protocol. Stop that stunning sister!” Half-spoiler: The Stunning Sister is neither stunning nor a Sister!

Director Paul King (Bunny and the Bull, Paddington) gives a vast expanse of canvas. There are the two animals, the whole community at Windsor, a circus, an antique shop, landmarks of London, a prison, and the climax that encompasses road, rail, air and sea, like a Bond (James, not Michael) climax. Exciting for sure, but a bit overdone. King realises that if the audience is with him on his basic premise, they will go with him on the ‘magic’ portion too.

How does Phoenix Buchanan disappear? Why does not anybody in the congregation notice that one Sister has deviated from the path, and is running off in another direction? Where did the bi-plane appear from? Are jail-breaks so easy? Why did no one check the rope that was cut to send Madam Kozlova’s trapeze artiste great grand-mother hurtling to her death? What are the realistic chances of Mrs. Brown being able to pull of the courier container act? Trust a critic to split hairs! It is therefore no mean achievement that King is in largely control of the proceedings and the mystery unravels at a decent pace.

Ben Whishaw (Skyfall, Spectre, Paddington) as the voice of Paddington Brown speaks in a clipped, soft tone, which is a welcome change from accented and twisted voices for animated characters. Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, Love Actually, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) as Phoenix Buchanan, the villain who does dog-food commercials, adds star value, often breaking into a broad grin that is pretentious and narcissistic. What is more important is that he seems to be having a ball. The pun on ‘bun’ was awkwardly done, though it isn’t Grant’s fault.

Another Hugh, Hugh Bonneville as Henry Brown, the head of the Brown family, draws a few laughs. Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky, The Blue Jasmine, The Shape of Water) as Mary Brown, Henry's wife has the audience rooting for her. A plain-Jane, she takes it upon herself to get justice for Paddington. A fine piece of casting is Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges, The Guard, In Calvary) as Knuckles McGinty, a safecracker and prison cook, who looks his part all the way. Ditto Aileen Atkins in a small role as Madam Kozlova. Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter, The Iron Lady, Paddington) as Samuel Gruber, antique shop owner, dodders around and endears himself.

Tom Conti (City Slacker, The Dark Knight Rises, Run for Your Wife, Streetdance 2) as Judge Gerald Biggleswade is used to create the kind of comedy that was seen in the Hollywood films of the 1920s-50s. Among the last exponents of this genre was the British comedian Norman Wisdom. In fact the entire segment where Paddington tries to take up jobs he knows nothing about, also involving Ben Miller as Colonel Lancaster, and some others, is a tribute to the comic capers of yore, from the great Charlie Chaplin to Laurel & Hardy to Jerry Lewis. Imelda Staunton as the voice of Aunt Lucy has a small ‘appearance’ at the end, Sanjeev Bhaskar (Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Notting Hill, Doctor Who), as Dr. Jafri, gets minuscule screen-time, while better half Meera Syal (Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Doctor Strange), as a prosecutor, exhibits a cutting, probing edge.

I have no hesitation in recommending the film to audiences across all age spans. Sometimes, having a good time is enough. All enjoyable and entertaining films are not masterpieces, nor are all masterpieces enjoyable and entertaining.

Rating: ***

Trailer: https://youtu.be/52x5HJ9H8DM