I Would Like to See It: Paddington 2

It’s strange to call a film as charming and earnest as Paddington 2 refined, but it’s as though someone surgically removed all evidence of ineptitude from its lovely but technically unexceptional predecessor. Even coming in a good ten minutes longer than Paddington, Paul King’s 2018 followup feels much quicker on its feet and more visually coherent. It borrows judiciously from Wes Anderson, but where Anderson’s films can feel cold or sterile, King’s manages to walk the razor-thin line between whimsy and vapidity. His cutaway dollhouse shots are a busy delight, his world’s affected sense of no-nonsense goodness and cartoonish villainy entertaining and surprisingly nuanced. With the exception of a few whiffed special effects — some lousy green-screen and a thrown cricket ball moving bizarrely slow — the whole thing is very close to technical perfection, and without sacrificing heart.

Ben Whishaw remains a mild-mannered delight as the titular Peruvian bear, a polite young fellow whose kindness holds his community together and whose clumsiness leads to endless madcap antics. A scene in which he attempts to charm steely prison chef Knuckles (Brendan Gleeson) while accidentally covering the man with condiments and striking him with food items (Gleeson’s delivery of the line “Nobody bonks me on the head with a bagwette” is a thing of rare beauty) is some of the most amusing modern slapstick I can call to mind. Indeed there’s something very Chaplinesque about the little bear, with his proper manners, signature hat, and haplessly bumbling way of moving through the world. Whishaw gives himself over entirely to every line, from the heartwarming to the silly. His commitment to muttering “I’m a bin, I’m a normal bin” while Paddington sneaks through his namesake station disguised as a trashcan is quite something on its own.

The film’s other great joy is Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant), a washed-up actor whose phosphate-white smile is as palpably false as his stilted, slightly alien bonhomie. Grant dives into the role with real brio, embodying the man as a sort of organized and selfish antithesis to Paddington’s chaotic kindness, his nested personalities constantly bubbling up to squabble with one another as he dons outlandish costumes and gives dreadful, mawkish renditions of famous Shakespearean lines. There is a clean, elegant simplicity to his opposition to Paddington, and his story and presence are much better-integrated than Nicole Kidman’s in the original film. One sees the two pursue their goals as reflections of each other, Buchanan one poorly containing many, Paddington joining in with the many to form a cohesive community. Paddington 2 is a very fine children’s movie, and — I cannot believe I’m going to type this phrase — a delight for all ages.