When it comes to cinematic bears, you’d be hard-pressed to think of any as charming as Ben Whishaw’s Paddington. A marmalade-loving fellow whose sweet tooth is matched only by his even sweeter disposition, he’s a distinctly amusing anthropomorphic bear whose humor and heart ensure you’d travel along with him to just about anywhere. With that being said, there is a good chance your experience with “Paddington in Peru,” the still charming yet more than a little scattered sequel to “Paddington” and “Paddington 2,” will hinge on how willing you are to overlook what is a somewhat shaky narrative that often sags rather than it entirely sings. Though Paddington himself is a joy who can do no wrong, with plenty of incredible voice acting again from Whishaw, its new director, Dougal Wilson, most known for his commercials and music videos, struggles to fill the big shoes left by Paul King. His film clearly loves its adorable main character and gets him right, though it frequently finds itself narratively lost in the jungle.
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Thankfully, even a lesser Paddington film is consistently good fun. Again, based on the beloved stories by Michael Bond, it sends the scruffy bear to Peru for his own Indiana Jones-esque adventure that wears its many playful cinematic influences on the sleeves of his blue duffle coat.
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However, it’s even before the crew, consisting of Paddington plus the Brown family of Mary (Emily Mortimer), Henry (Hugh Bonneville), Judy (Madeleine Harris), Jonathan (Samuel Joslin), and Mrs. Waters (Julie Walters), set out that “Paddington in Peru” is actually at its strongest. As we get taken through the rhythms of their lives, with the family going through changes due to the children growing up and soon moving out, we find plenty of clever gags and loving observations in Whishaw’s narration. Sadly, this does not last until Paddington gets a letter from his Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) asking him to visit her in Peru.
The only trouble is he stops hearing from her, and when they all arrive at the Home for Retired Bears where she was living, she is missing. As we soon hear from the home’s Reverend Mother, played by a positively chaotic Olivia Colman who is clearly having the time of her life, they’ll have to set off into the vast jungle in order to find her. With only the troubled ship captain Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) and his daughter Gina (Carla Tous) to guide them on their journey, it becomes a mighty bumpy ride that will test both Paddington and the Browns.
If this sounds like a lot, it very much is as “Paddington in Peru” is undoubtedly the biggest of the films, but this doesn’t always mean better. Once the film arrives in Peru, it has some good fun playing around at the Home for Retired Bears. It is already a delightful concept made even more fun by its introduction and a cheeky “The Sound of Music” gag. It’s sequences like these that prove most effective. Once we leave this all behind to get out on the water, complete with a somewhat iffy CGI backdrop that proves rather distracting, things become much more hit-and-miss. There are still plenty of great jokes that keep you engaged, but it’s the execution of the adventure itself that can grow a little wearisome. It never entirely drags down the film, as all the winning characters are just too charming for it to do so, but it does wobble a bit.
What holds it together is that outside of the predictable mechanics of the narrative and the need to inevitably split up the family in the jungle, just spending time with the characters is a joy. The humorous back and forths they have, each getting their moments to shine, keep the whole thing moving along. There is never a moment when you aren’t invested in their adventure because they’re on it. Forget the introduction of an infamous treasure that feels like putting a hat on top of a hat narratively; it’s the characters we are about. Just like in the prior films, it’s in their interactions that we get won over. Everything else is, for the most part, just window-dressing for the more winning heart of the experience. No matter how busy it can get and how frequently the story can feel a little directionless, they keep it on course.
When the film arrives at an extended conclusion, all of which is bursting with plenty of swashbuckling, betrayals, and shenanigans, it mostly sticks the landing. For all the ways that you were a little uncertain about the path it took to get there, the family-friendly romp finds the heart it needs to in this finale. Though it teeters on the edge of being saccharine as the sentimentality it reaches for doesn’t feel entirely earned, it never falls over into being overly forced. It won’t be remembered as the best Paddington film by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s okay, as that’s a high bar to clear. It still proves to be a trip worth writing home about, and when the traveling companions are as charming as these, it is one you’d happily take again. [B-]
“Paddington in Peru opens in theaters on February 14 via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
