As a new (albeit temporary) resident of London, these past few weeks I’ve found myself searching for movies about the city I’m now inhabiting. I believe that every city’s cinema is an important part of its identity—when I moved to New York for my Freshman year, I went on a similar journey. From “When Harry Met Sally” to “Taxi Driver” and even “The Amazing Spider-Man”, I immersed myself in Hollywood’s idea of New York.
Similarly, for the past month or so, I’ve been embarking on a journey to truly try to understand how the movies see London. Some of the movies I’ve been watching are films I’ve never seen before, but some—like this week’s subject—are much more familiar.
“Paddington” is the story of a bear from Peru, who finds his life turned upside down when circumstances land him far from his home and all by himself in the heart of London’s public transport. He has nothing to his name but a hat, a sandwich and a suitcase—that’s when the Brown family comes in, and gives him a place to stay.
The allegory here is not a difficult one to draw by any margin. I, much like the titular bear, am alone here. I have nothing from home but what could fit in two pieces of luggage, and when I first arrived, I admittedly felt the same sort of sadness that Paddington expresses in his letters home. I even wrote some of those myself—long, melancholy things. More to prove that the other side of the world still existed than anything else.
Needless to say, this particular rewatch unveiled a whole layer of this movie’s charm that I’d been missing before.
Not only is the casting perfect (I found myself particularly enchanted with Julie Walters, portraying the oddball housekeeper Ms. Bird), but all the vibrant colors are such a treat for the eyes. Nicole Kidman is a wild but solid choice for the eerie villainess, and it was also fun to see the inspiration for her motivations—the real Natural History Museum, here in the city! All the taxidermy is even creepier in person, and it definitely feels plausible that a character like Kidman’s might exist.
It may have its weaker moments and the script may stumble a bit in articulating the villain plotline (not that Kidman was bad by any means, just that the parts of the film about Paddington and the Browns are incredibly more compelling), but all in all, the parts that matter—the parts about the Browns, and about Paddington finding a place for himself—are done extremely well.
As a children’s movie, its message is sweet and comforting. It reminds us all not to give up hope, to be kind and compassionate to those less fortunate and to never forget where you came from.
It feels funny to say that I have a deeper understanding of a kids movie about a talking bear, but I do. And even though the star of the show is often times this film’s sequel, we shouldn’t forget that this is still a lovely little movie. Worth the rewatch, in my humble opinion!
