Paddington, Review: Please see this film. Thank you.

Paddington, Review: Please see this film. Thank you.

In 1956, a BBC cameraman bought a small toy bear left alone on a shelf in the iconic Selfridges store, London, for his wife Brenda. Named Paddington, after the train station close to Michael Bond’s home, the bear inspired him to write eight episodes in just over a week, featuring the bear from Deepest Peru. It was published as a book in 1958. Meanwhile, the station was made famous when ‘4.50 from Paddington’ was published, in 1957, a detective fiction novel by Agatha Christie, one of her Miss Marple series. The 1961 film Murder, She Said, was based on it.

The Paddington books have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide and have been translated into over forty languages, including Latin. Michael Bond says, “I am constantly surprised by all the translations because I thought that Paddington was essentially an English character. Obviously, Paddington-type situations happen all over the world." In 1997, Michael Bond was awarded an OBE for services to children’s literature. At 88, he is still writing and lives in London, not far from Paddington Station where it all began.

Bond’s bear has grown up deep in the Peruvian jungle with his Aunt Lucy who, inspired by a chance encounter with an English explorer, has raised her nephew to dream of an exciting life in London. When an earthquake destroys their home, old Aunt Lucy decides to smuggle her young nephew on board a boat bound for England, in search of a better life. Arriving alone at Paddington Station, the bear soon finds that city life is not all he had imagined – until he meets the kindly Brown family, a couple, their daughter and son, who find him with a label tied around his neck which reads ‘Please look after this bear. Thank you.’ They name him Paddington and offer him a temporary home whilst he searches for the explorer who impressed Aunt Lucy all those years before. But when Paddington catches the eye of a sinister, seductive taxidermist, Millicent, it isn’t long before his home – and very existence – is under threat...

Writer-director Paul King (The Mighty Boosh, Bunny and the Bull; the latter, was enjoyed by producer David Heyman, though not many felt like he did about the film) went through quite an ordeal in getting the script to meet the expectations of  Heyman (Gravity, the Harry Potter series). Heyman even went to extent of conveying to King that he might not make the film at all, even after countless drafts and three full versions of the story, if it did not convince him. When Canal came on board as producer, Heyman asked King to give it one last go. And it got going. King is in great form, as writer and director. Comedy in all its incarnations and species, suspense, villainy, thrills, animation, sentiments…everything is found in the right measure. Moreover, he is able to reach out to all age groups. Animation is first rate, blending with live action without any trace whatsoever.

A house-keeper who enlivens the climax, an odd-ball antique shop owner with a funny accent, an old neighbor who has read one spy thriller too many, the girl who wants to keep her boy-friend away from her parents and the boy who teases his sister about him, and the parents themselves. A flashback featuring the courting Brown couple is among the highlights of the film. No wonder King had this to say about Hugh Bonneville (Downtown Abbey, Monuments Men) and Sally Hawkins (Made in Dagenham, Blue Jasmine), “They’re so funny together, Hugh and Sally. They spent a day together without me, improvising, and then the next day we all worked together, and, by the end of that day we’d rewritten all their scenes. They’re properly funny and so good at getting under the skin of a slightly bickering married couple.”

There is a scene which features Bonneville in drag, and King feels that scene led the British censors to certify the film as inappropriate for children. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has given the film a "PG" or "Parental Guidance" rating, meaning it may not be suitable for very young children. It cited "dangerous behaviour", such as when Paddington hides in a fridge in the film, and "mild threat", when a villain threatens to kill and stuff the bear. The "mild sex references" include a comic sequence where a man flirts with another man disguised as a woman, while the classification also warns of "mild bad language". Following a minor media uproar, the BBFC removed the reference to sexual content on its consumer advice in favour of "innuendo".

Wonder what prompted King to give a Bond villain like persona to Nicole Kidman (The Hours, Moulin Rouge) as the evil taxidermist. Was it the fact that a Bond had written the book? Never mind, just watch her relish the malevolence and gadgetry that she gets to throw at the bear and his rescue team. Julie Walters (Billy Elliot, Harry Potter) as Mrs. Bird the housekeeper, is as cranky and endearing as they come. Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter, The Iron Lady) as Mr. Gruber, the owner of the antiques shop, raises a few laughs and Peter Capaldi (Dr. Who) as the Browns' neighbour, Mr. Curry, raises many more. Andre King as the pick-pocket, Alice Lowe as the Geographer’s receptionist and Matt Lucas as the taxi-driver are all in the right places.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFuzMlfZGWM