(dir: Paul King) Paddington is wonderful. Special effects have become so miraculous in recent years that movie-makers become understandably intoxicated with their overuse, but here is an example of just the right amount of use, and the special effect is Paddington himself. He is a talking bear from Darkest Peru looking for a home in London, and he has been brought to life with a face both ursine and emotive, and with the voice of Ben Whishaw, who brings to bear (geez! sorry) his innocence, politeness, and trouble-provoking, childlike curiosity. But it's the marvellous expressivity of his face which really amazes: when Paddington discomfits Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville) with his "hard stare", reserved for those who have Said Something Rude, it's enormously effective, and Paddington helpfully explains it as soon as it's made its point.
One of the wonders of this London is that it feels real enough (slightly sanitized, yes, a touch Victorian, and perhaps a little Amelie-ized in the sense that it seems too entirely white-skinned, but real enough), and yet there is no time wasted on people reacting to a talking bear in their midst. In fact, when his destined family, the Browns, first spot him in a train station, Mr. Brown instructs, "There's a bear over there. Probably selling something. Eyes straight ahead, everyone." Later, when Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins), is reporting Paddington's disappearance to the police, she describes what he's wearing, adds that he's a bear, and the cop says, "That's not much to go on."
The comedy is whimsical, the story forthright, the "action" scenes don't distract too much (one involves a skateboard, a double-decker bus and an umbrella; another the total destruction of the family's lav; my particular favorite is a Buster-Keaton-like routine Paddington achieves on an escalator). As the story stays refreshingly simple (Bear Searches for a Home), it needs an antagonist, which it finds in Nicole Kidman as a taxidermist with Cruella-de-Vil-ish designs on Paddington's hide. She is cartoonish, but all is forgiven, as she also has a delightful back-story to tell. It's a great cast: Peter Capaldi is the cantakerous neighbor, Jim Broadbent a helpful antiques-dealer, Julie Walters the house-keeper, and Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon voice Paddington's Aunt and Uncle.
IN SUMMARY: Do see it. You'll fall in love, both with this bear and with his new family, I promise you.
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