PADDINGTON IN PERU

Easily the least engaging film in the trilogy, Paddington in Peru will surely entertain the tots, but the scattershot screenplay and an overall lack of imagination make this a long sit for anyone else.

Let’s get this out of the way first: I was never a huge fan of the first Paddington movie and I still struggle to see why the sequel was hailed as a masterpiece in its genre. Nevertheless, besides those relatively low expectations I had going into Paddington in Peru, the picture still managed to disappoint me.

Picking up half a dozen years after Paddington 2, the threequel takes the titular bear and his adoptive family, the Browns, on a trip to visit his aunt Lucy. Once they hit Peru they discover she’s gone missing, and before you can yell ‘marmalade sandwich’ Paddington is unwittingly involved in a search for the mythical gold of El Dorado.

If that sounds more like a script for a Saturday morning cartoon than for a feature film to you, you wouldn’t be wrong. While Paddington in Peru moves at a brisk pace, the film just jumps from one set piece to the next without ever stopping for character evolution or emotional payoffs.

Not just the screenplay lacks magic. New director Dougal Wilson – taking over from Wonka helmer Paul King – struggles to get performances out of the cast that go beyond pantomime antics (he even manages to waste Olivia Colman, which must be a first) while the visuals ooze an annoying artificiality and the production design cannot hide that much of the film was shot with green-key backdrops.

I’d love to give you a silver lining, a scene that stands out or a performance that lingers in the mind, but I truly can’t think of any, because unlike the previous entries in the franchise Paddington in Peru distinctly feels like the milking of a proven IP instead of a labour of love.

release: 2024

director: Dougal Wilson

starring: Ben Wishaw, Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Antonio Banderas