Day 101 - Paddington 2



Day 101          Paddington 2 [2017]
                          
Screenplay                    Paul King & Simon Farnaby
Based on                       ‘Paddington Bear’ by Michael Bond
Director                         Paul King
Cinematography            Erik Wilson
Music                            Dario Marianelli
Leads                            Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville, Brendan Gleeson, Julie Walters, Peter Capaldi, Noah Taylor, Tom Conti, Joanna Lumley
Production                     Heyday Films, StudioCanal

IMDb                                8/10
Rotten Tomatoes              100%

The critics seem to love this, so I had to see what all the fuss was about. I settled down to watch it with my family over the Easter weekend as it is a ‘family film’ after all. I should mention the youngest of us is 22 so we didn’t have the child’s perspective, but I consider myself young at heart… I think Ben Whishaw is a solid actor, but I just don’t think his voice worked as Paddington. That was a serious stumbling block for me to ignore in a film full of British talent. There was a star at every corner, even in minor roles. I think that was the best thing about this film. It instilled within me a sense of British pride, especially as a Londoner. Yes, it shows the posh side of London, but it is based on the story of Paddington bear so we can’t worry about that side of things too much. Hugh Grant seems to have had a career revival of sorts and has broken out of his stereotypical role which he will forever be type cast in. The prison scene was a definite shout out to Wes Anderson and I hope Paul King would admit that. It had Grand Budapest written all over it, from the colours, to the symmetry, even the plot was fairly similar. Strangely I think my favourite character was Tom Conti (Friends fans will remember him as Emily’s father), he exemplified the old-world upper-class British man and had me giggling. I’m afraid to say though for all its effort it failed to stir up any child-like feeling I thought might still exist within me. The best ‘kids’ films are those that children enjoy, which also appeal to adults. The Disney films of old do this, as well as Toy Story, Shrek and so on. However, that is due to nostalgia as I was a child when I first watched them. Better examples are films such as WALL-E or Up which I watched when much older (and when I was too cool for children’s films of course). Yet both had me tearing up, whilst also chuckling away. Paddington 2 just didn’t do this for me, it had the odd cheap laugh, but I’m not sure why the critics have been so kind. Perhaps because Paddington is a British institution, and everyone was scared. Well Not I. I would have liked to watch it with someone a generation below to see what they thought though as, on this one, their opinion matters much more than mine.

Acting                             3 / 4
Writing                         2.5 / 4
Cinematography              3 / 4
Music                              2 / 4
HWF rating              2.5 / 4

Comments