Paddington In Peru
(PG) 106 minutes
★★★★☆
AT the world premiere of Paddington in Peru, new director Dougal Wilson joked that only a fool would try to step into the shoes of his predecessor Paul King.
Paddington 2 has a 99 per cent rating on the Rotten Tomatoes review website and the first film is equally perfect in my opinion.
Olivia Colman plays a ‘suspicious’ singing Reverend Mother[/caption]
But with Ben Whishaw back as the voice of our accident prone bear and Olivia Colman playing a “suspicious” singing Reverend Mother this was never going to be a calamity.
This film sticks to the winning formula pratfalls, heart warming family values and first class actors hamming it up as villains.
As the title suggests, Paddington returns to his homeland in this story.
The Reverend Mother has told him that his Aunt Lucy is “acting strangely” and the ever dutiful bear goes to visit her.
The Brown family join him for a holiday, with Mrs Brown desperate to reconnect with her teenage children.
But as soon as they arrive at the Retirement Home For Bears run by Colman’s nun it is clear that something is amis.
I don’t think it’s a marmalade dropper to reveal that the Oscar winning actress’s character isn’t as saintly as she first appears.
More obviously a wrong ‘un is Antonio Banderas’s Hunter Cabot, who is obsessed with finding El Dorado’s gold.
He’s haunted by an array of failed ancestors that allow Banderas to have a lot of fun.
But while there is a lot of debate about which of the first two movies is the best, the third one isn’t going to challenge for supremacy.
There’s too much Banderas and not enough Colman and as a result the film gets almost as lost as the Browns do in the jungle.
Neither is quite up to the standard of Hugh Grant in 2 and Nicole Kidman in the original.
The comedy set pieces are also not as imaginative as before, although first time movie director Wilson does bring some nice visual tricks to proceedings.
The only original key cast member missing is Sally Hawkins, with Emily Mortimer replacing her as Mrs Brown.
Mortimer does a good job, but few actresses do kooky quite as well as Hawkins.
Thankfully, a reliably rousing finale rescues Paddington in Peru.
By the end of this feel good film it’s hard not to feel all is okay with the world.
- Paddington In Peru (PG) is in cinemas from Friday November 8.
