Paddington - Review

I love Paddington. There. I might as well not even write anything else. Paddington is just excellent. There are so many good things about this movie, so this review may be rather large:

For starters, the cast is absolutely excellent and really capture the magic of the movie. When I found out the movie was being made, I actually thought Colin Firth would make a brilliant Paddington. When he signed on I thought I should think about having a career in casting, but then he left the production. I was distraught. But now, after seeing the film, I couldn’t imagine anyone other than Ben Whishaw playing our protagonist. He seems so right for the part. Just the right softness and pitch in his voice. He captures the magic of the character and really performs Paul King and Hamish McColl’s brilliant screenplay.

Furthermore on that, the script is very funny. Hilarious is an understatement. The hard stare and the travel piano really did it for me. It paces perfectly and has a very heart-warming (and breaking, for that matter) nature.

Back to the cast, Nicole Kidman is devilishly, delightfully – and perhaps worryingly – sadistic as the film’s taxidermist antagonist Millicent. She seems born to play the role, which makes me slightly scared of her! Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins are great as Mr and Mrs Brown, as are Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin as their kids. Peter Capaldi is also fantastic as their racist neighbour Mr Curry. Julie Walters is also excellent, and Jim Broadbent, and Matt Lucas. Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon do some good voice work. And I couldn’t help but notice a load of CBBC actors cameoing. I counted James Bachman, Simon Farnaby and Alice Lowe.

They also manage to get an important political message across, in that it doesn’t matter where you’re from – you are just a person like everybody else. Nigel Farage must love this movie!

Another fab thing about Paddington is that the whole family can enjoy this film. I went with all my family and everyone came out with a huge grin on their face.

It’s touching, without being overly sentimental; gets an important political statement across; and the whole cast give excellent performances. Paddington is family movie perfection.

4.5/5