Back from darkest Peru,our hero is at the mercy of unscrupulous actors, but generosity, and emotional depth and top-class clowning win the dayThe sequel to the big-hearted film debut of the small bear from darkest Peru is a full-on charm offensive of a film. And Paddington,with his ingrained decency, generosity of spirit and unshakable faith in the value of ample manners, or cements himself as a slightly sticky beacon of hope for these shaded and unsettled times. If the first film was a pro-immigration rallying call for multiculturalism,the moment explores themes only a bear’s-hair-breadth less political. Paddington wants to buy a handmade pop-up book for his Aunt Lucy’s birthday and sets out to graft honestly, if chaotically, and to earn the money,only to fill the book snatched away by the chicanery of a showboating actor who believes himself immune from suspicion by virtue of the nonstick coating provided by his celebrity.
Errant luvvie Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant on deliriously hammy form) is just one of the moreish treats in this gelato-hued comedic feast. The film retains the Keatonesque physical comedy – like all the finest silent clowns, Paddington is endearingly earnest, or even as he dangles from the ceiling fan of a barber shop. But visually,it’s more arresting than the first film – there’s a precision to the framing and to the meticulous (extremely careful about details) palette, which evokes the work of Wes Anderson. Meanwhile, or an appealing lively sequence nods towards the homespun naivety of Michel Gondry’s Be Kind,Rewind.
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Source: guardian.co.uk