For the Love of a Sandwich

I am not one that normally goes in for family movies. I’m not saying they’re all bad, just more that the kinds of genres I like, and the kind of storytelling I enjoy, doesn’t often overlap with the family film genre. Flights of whimsy and stories of caring and sharing aren’t really high on my list of things I’ll seek out. I prefer sci-fi, or superheroes, or horror (lots of horror, really), and you don’t tend to find family-friendly tales in those genres (although the ones you can get are certainly interesting on their own merits).

Still, occasionally a family friendly film does break through into my sphere of observation. When a film is praised enough, and beloved enough, I tend to be willing to at least take a passing look and see if it’s something I’d be interested in. I try not to be a hipster about things, giving everything a chance… eventually, even if it takes me years after it came out to go and watch it for myself (once all the buzz has died down and I can be a hipster about it in a different way). If something is good enough, I’ll give it a fair shake.

Such was the case with Paddington, the 2014 family film starring a bear that really likes marmalade. This wasn’t the first time I’d seen anything about the bear named Paddington; I’m pretty sure I’d seen other works, at least the animated Paddington Bear cartoon from 1989 that was produced by Hanna-Barberra. So I knew it was a story about a bear who eats sandwiches and has adventures full of whimsy and caring and sharing. You know, family-friendly stuff. Still, because everyone raved about the film, I sat down to watch it (a few years late, sure) and, yes, it is a solid and fun little family adventure.

Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) is a bear living in the forests of Darkest Peru. He spends his days with his aunt and uncle, Lucy (Imelda Staunton) and Pastuzo (Michael Gambon) and, once a year when the oranges become ripe, they make marmalade. They learned this craft from an English explorer, Montgomery Clyde (Tim Downie), who came to Peru many decades earlier on an expedition, and found these remarkable, talking bears. Ever since, Pastuzo and Lucy have planned a trip to England to meet up with their explorer friend… one day.

Sadly, things take a turn for the bear family when loggers come and cut down their entire forest. Pastuzo died in the carnage (off screen as this is a family film), leaving Lucy and Paddington to carry on. She sends Paddington to England where, as she learned from the explorer, kids were sent with tags on their lapels, waiting for a new family to take them in (as was done in World War II) while Lucy heads to a home for old bears to while away the last of her days. England isn’t like what Paddington expected, but he does meet up with a nice family – Hugh Bonneville as Henry Brown, Sally Hawkins as Mary Brown, Madeleine Harris as Judy Brown, Samuel Joslin as Jonathan Brown, and Julie Walters as housekeeper Mrs Bird – who reluctantly take him in for what should be just a day… until he grows on them.

Paddington is a sweet, very British, story that manages to transcend into something that works for everyone. The basic idea of being a kid and being lost in a big city, hoping to find a family, can work for everyone, whatever your nationality, human or bear. But it helps that the character is played with charm and grace by Whishaw. He has the right tone, the right voice to give Paddington all the youthful charisma, humility, and humor he needs to be the knockout character of the film. He’s the lead, and the film needs him to be as good as possible. Whishaw handled that with aplomb.

It’s interesting because Whishaw wasn’t the initial choice for Paddington. The role was originally given to Colin Firth, a great performer with a great voice. However, Studio Canal (the production company on this movie) decided his voice wasn’t right for the part, and the actor voluntarily dropped out. He agreed, and that was graceful of him. But it’s true, I don’t know that Firth would have been right for the role. His voice is great, but he’d also sound older and deeper than Whishaw and that would have stolen some of the youthful energy from the character. Firth was not right and I’m glad everyone realized that early on.

The film works best when it’s Paddington, off in the city, causing mayhem on accident. He’s a tiny little agent of chaos, largely because he’s new to London (and human civilization) and he has to learn everything. But he also has that energy of youth, the desire to be good and fix things without knowing how to do it gracefully, so a little tornado of terror sometimes follows in his wake. It’s all in good fun, though, because Paddington clearly is a harmless bear without a bad bone in his fuzzy body. He tries, and he’s sweet, and it works.

I think the part of the film that doesn’t work quite as well is when the villain comes in. As we learn, explorer Montgomery Clyde came back to England to report his findings, but he was laughed out of the Explorers’ Guild. Talking bears?! And he didn’t bring back any proof?! Preposterous! He exited in disgrace and retired a broken man. His daughter, Millicent (Nicole Kidman), blamed the bears for this and wanted them captured, killed, and stuffed so she could present them as proof. With Paddington in town, he’s her target and she’ll stop at nothing to get him.

Paddington doesn’t need a villain, honestly. He’s a sweet bear that just wants to find a family, and the story should focus on that. Millicent and her cartoonish story feels like it comes from a different movie, a sillier and dumber film, and it doesn’t really work in Paddington. It doesn’t help that Kidman feels woefully miscast, overplaying her vampy villain role and missing the tone of the movie. Plus, she’s not British, unlike everyone else in this film (Australian is not the same as British) and so she feels like she came from the wrong region as well as the wrong film. She doesn’t work here.

I like this film best when it’s focused on Paddington, the sweet bear with a heart of gold. His adventures and misadventures provide all the fun and whimsy this movie needs. I get that the producers felt like the film needed a villain to motivate the story, like the criminals in Home Alone working against Kevin McCallister. But in this case it’s just not needed. Let Paddington focus on Paddington and throw all the rest out. That’s your movie, and it’s a real charmer.