Film Review - Paddington 2 (U)

This is perfect.

Remember that feeling you had going into Toy Story 2, hoping that it wouldn't spoil what you loved about the original, and then discovering that it was significantly better? Well, welcome to the Paddington sequel. Because this film's achievement is making the first movie, for all its wit and charm, seem like a mere prologue to the main event. 

I'm of a generation that grew up with both the Michael Bond Paddington novels and the beloved BBC animated series narrated by Michael Horden. The 2014 Paddington film successfully married the episodic nature of those stories (good-natured but accident-prone bear gets into multiple hilarious scrapes) with a feature-length story arc, while losing none of what made book-readers love the characters to begin with. Paddington 2 achieves the same, plus it builds on every aspect that made the first film so enjoyable.

The plot this time around concerns Paddington's search for a birthday present to send to his Aunt Lucy back in his native Peru. An antique pop-up book of London seems the perfect gift, but it's out of our bear's price range, so he sets out to earn it through various kinds of employment - the types that result in beautifully choreographed comic disaster. Paddington has competition for the book as well, from a villainous washed-up actor called Phoenix Buchanan (Hugh Grant). When their paths collide, the shenanigans get real.

What to say? Where to start? I think it's with the screenplay - a marvel of ingenuity, where every scrap of detail plays a part further down the line and a broad cast of characters is utilised splendidly. The storytelling is as intricate as the miraculous pop-up book itself, which leads me right to the...

Artwork. This is without a doubt one of the most breathtakingly beautiful films of the year. Every frame is saturated with colour in a way that brings London to vivid life, so that you fall in love with the city (all over again or for the first time, depending on your standpoint). Steam fairgrounds, suburban streets and national monuments are all recreated in gorgeous detail. It's set-dressing that gets noticed. And the film does more than just pine over London's iconic past. It presents the city as...

A modern, multi-cultural wonderland, where community and diversity exist together and Peter Capaldi's narrow-minded curmudgeon (Mr Curry from the novels) is dismissed as a laughing-stock. A city that at its best is forward-looking and welcoming, not least to a big-hearted immigrant bear from South America. Which takes me on to...

Paddington himself, a CGI character who merges seamlessly with the heightened real-world setting. Unwittingly funny and irresistible in his warmth and pathos, he's a marmalade-fixated source of joy, voiced once again to perfection by Ben Whishaw. Paddington is generous to a fault, yet has an unimpeachable sense of right and wrong and a weaponised 'hard stare'. And he's not a one-bear band either. The film's hairy protagonist is backed up by...

An absurdly talented supporting cast. Led by Hugh Bonnevill and Sally Hawkins, the Browns (Paddington's adoptive family) are tighter-knit and even funnier than before. They're surrounded this time by a vibrant and expanding community of characters too damn numerous to name. But two earn a special mention. Brendan Gleeson brings his own (grizzly) bear-like presence as thug-with-a-heart Knuckles McGinty, while - well - what can be said about...

Hugh Grant? His multi-faceted turn as the film's bad-guy is just possibly the highlight of his career. I mean, I loved him in Florence Foster Jenkins, but with this performance seeing is believing. Part self-parody, part unique creation, he turns the preening Buchanan into one of the great comedy-villains of cinema. And it doesn't hurt that everything going on around him is equally inventive and hilarious. Which I think covers it all, aside from...

The exquisite comic timing, the slapstick, the precision-framing of scene after scene, the sheer creative beauty of the whole thing... Hey, the undiluted sense of joy.

I may have seen better films this year. (I may not.) But I haven't seen one that's made me feel that good about being alive.

Gut Reaction: Laughter and happy-sadness and genuine awe.

Ed's Verdict: A work of exquisite comedy, artistic brilliance and sheer wonder. And it's all about a talking bear in a squashy hat. Don't believe me? Remedy the situation immediately.