Film Review: "Paddington in Peru"
The third entry in the beloved franchise takes Paddington back to Peru, where grand and heartwarming adventure awaits.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the films follow.
Like many other people, I’m a huge fan of the Paddington film series. These are the types of films that you go to when you just want to escape from the ugliness of the world and go to a place where little bears with blue coats and red hats manage to find nice human families to take them in and where said bears give very hard stares to anyone who’s foolish enough to forget their manners. Paddington in Peru marks the return of this franchise to popular consciousness, the first time we’ve had a feature film with our beloved Paddington Bear since 2017. It’s a welcome return for one of our culture’s most beloved ursine heroes.
When the film begins, Paddington has just received his British passport and has settled quite nicely into life with the Browns. However, he gets word from the Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman), who has been taking care of Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton), as well as other retired bears. Aunt Lucy, it seems, has been missing Paddington. Her ever-loyal nephew decides to go visit her and, having convinced the Browns to come along, they take a family holiday to Peru, where it’s revealed that Aunt Lucy has gone missing. Paddington and the Browns go off after her, meeting several new characters along the way–including Antonio Banderas’ rakish river captain Hunter Cabot and his daughter, Gina (Carla Tous)--and also find their way to the fabled El Dorado. In the end, Paddington reunites with his tribe of bears and with Aunt Lucy but has also reaffirmed his bond with the Browns, returning to London but secure in the knowledge that his fellow bears can visit at any time.
As he has from the beginning, Whishaw endows Paddington with a soft sweetness that makes you just want to hug him. It’s been clear for some time now that his separation from Aunt Lucy is something that troubles him, and I’m glad the film decided to explore this in further detail. Though Paddington gets a British passport in the beginning and thus has the coveted prize of citizenship, it’s still clear that he feels a divided sense of self, one that will surely be familiar with any expat or immigrant. Thanks to Whishaw’s voice performance, we are once again drawn into Paddington’s point of view, and you can’t help but cheer for him from beginning to end.
The rest of the usual cast are their typical amazing selves. Hugh Bonneville is a less-fussy version of Mr. Brown, though he still has his reservations about gallivanting off to Peru on a moment’s notice. Meanwhile, Emily Mortimer is charming and warm as Mrs. Brown, who is currently facing a bit of an empty nest, since her son is increasingly distant and her daughter is thinking about university. Though the film doesn’t spend too much time on this, I do like that it shows that the Brown family is slowly changing as the children are growing up, and this gives an extra bit of poignancy to the family’s voyage to Peru.
Antonio Banderas also makes for a very fine villain in his own right, and it’s clear that he is having the time of his life in this role. He’s dashing, of course, but the beauty of a star of Banderas’ caliber is that, like Hugh Grant (who was the villain of the second film), he’s been around long enough and earned enough respect that he doesn’t feel the need to take himself too seriously. Throughout the film his character, Hunter, is haunted by the specters of other members of his family who have ended up getting themselves killed as a result of their pursuit of El Dorado. The fact that they are all–including a female pilot–are all played outlandishly and hammishly by Banderas makes it even funnier.
Speaking of Hugh Grant, he makes a brief–but very funny–cameo at the end of the film, when Paddington and his various family members visit Phoenix Buchanan in prison. He’s always a hoot, and I was literally laughing out loud while he attempted to rope Paddington’s family into a production of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” While I certainly loved the rest of the film, I couldn’t help but wonder what it might have been like had they brought Buchanan back for some kind of redemptive arc. The man is just so damn funny and charming, and he so enjoys hamming it up in movies like this that it can’t help but feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity. Maybe he’ll come back for a future installment of the franchise. One can always hope!
And then there’s Olivia Colman.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I think Colman is truly one of the best actresses of her generation (that’s a real minority opinion, I know). She really outdoes herself in this role, though, and it’s clear from the beginning that her nice-nun schtick is just a thin veneer covering up something much more sinister. And so it proves to be, for she is none other than Clarissa Cabot, yet another member of Hunter’s family with designs on El Dorado, and it’s revealed that her sunny disposition has hidden a true ruthless streak. This, I think, is the key to Colman as a performer. She excels at crafting characters whose sunny dispositions often hide something far more sinister.
It turns out, though, that there isn’t really any gold at El Dorado, unless one counts numerous orange trees and their particularly juicy fruits as gold. To the bears, of course, the fruit is more valuable than any metal could ever be, particularly once Paddington introduces them to the recipe for orange marmalade. It’s a lovely little subversion of everyone’s expectations, particularly from the villains who thought they were going to make it rich by exploiting Paddington and his innately trusting nature to make their way to the lost City of Gold.
Like the other entries in the series, Paddington in Peru is an adventure film that nevertheless manages to have a heart of gold, and it undoubtedly wears that heart on its sleeve. There are many moments where you can’t help but laugh out loud, and then there are also moments that will pull out a tear from even the most jaundiced and cynical viewer. When it comes to Paddington, I just don’t think it’s possible to be unmoved. When it comes right down to it, it’s nothing short of cinematic joy, distilled into its purest form.
I think there’s something particularly poignant about Paddington’s identity in this film. Part of him will always belong and feel at home in Peru but, as he says to the Browns, they are now his family, and they are where he belongs. Perhaps it’s the fact that this film has been released in a time in which so many people feel displaced and in which immigrants are being ruthlessly demonized by the Trump administration and its allies. Paddington in Peru, however, is a reminder that it is possible to embrace the better angels of our natures and to always remember our manners, just as our little bear hero would want.