I almost forgot to do this series this month. Halfway through the day on Sunday, the 30th of the month, I realized that I had blithely let the entire month elapse without watching my one movie for this series. Which seems even more ridiculous when it only involves one movie every two months.
But remember in time I did, and watched it that night I did. Thank goodness, as the world would have surely exploded had I failed to watch it in time.
Paddington is a bit of a cheat in this series, as it is the first movie I've watched for Finish What You Started that is actually already on all my movie lists. That's right, I gave myself credit for a full viewing of Paul King's movie back over Christmas break in 2014, when the movie was released in Australia a couple months before it hit American theaters, and in a few moments you'll see why.
My older son -- who was only four at the time -- and I went to see it in Tasmania, where we were visiting his grandmother. But we had to leave the theater with about 15 minutes left in the movie.
Not because he had to go to the bathroom, though at least that would have been something. I mean, we are all prisoners to the tyrannical needs of our own bodies, especially when we are four.
No, we had to leave because he was too scared.
In a Paddington movie.
It seems illogical, but maybe I shouldn't tease him. I mean, the main villain, played by Nicole Kidman, does want to actually kill Paddington. She's a taxidermist, and taxidermy requires more than just stunning your target.
I wanted to explain to my son that Paddington was not in any real danger, because that's not how these movies work, but you can't explain away the fears of a four-year-old. She does actually shoot him with a tranquilizer dart, so I wouldn't be surprised if his mind translated that as a fatal shot, even with the irrepressible bear appearing again on screen almost immediately afterward.
So, with me grumbling probably more than I should have, we did leave.
Ordinarily I don't give myself credit for a viewing I don't finish, but with so little time left, and so little doubt how it would resolve, it seemed warranted in this case.
A little less than six years later, I finally did see that ending on a Sunday night during the great pandemic of 2020. It involves all the characters on a rooftop and Paddington creating a diversion by throwing his "emergency marmalade sandwich" (the one he keeps stashed in his hat) in range for a bunch of pigeons to kick up a storm in their attempt to eat it. The fluttering causes Kidman's character to lose her balance and fall of the building when Imelda Staunton unwittingly opens a trap door at her feet. Of course, in keeping with the non-fatal overriding principles of the entire movie, Kidman is left hanging on a pole, and ultimately, shoveling shit at a zoo.
The value in this second viewing, and first complete viewing, was not in finally seeing how the movie ended, which I probably could have easily predicted. (Rooftop endings are always a good fallback, don't you know.) It was in realizing that this movie is much better than I've given it credit for.
I'm not sure why I wasn't totally enjoying Paddington the first time around; I was mildly biased against it even before the premature departure. I remember not particularly liking the scene where Hugh Bonneville dresses up like a maid to infiltrate the historical society, but it's harmless enough.
This time, not only did I like it much better, but I don't even see how it is significantly less delightful than the universally beloved Paddington 2. So now I guess I like the sequel slightly less than most people, and the original slightly more.
One takeaway was how Wes Andersonian the whole thing is, which I don't remember thinking the first time I saw it. There were two main style elements I thought King had "borrowed" from Anderson, one being the quick pan and return, to action on the side of the screen before coming back to the original focus of the shot. I'm sure there would be a way to describe that more articulately, but I'm guessing you know what I'm talking about. Then perhaps even more explicitly, King twice includes scenes where we look into a miniature version of the Brown household from the perspective of a removed wall, as the camera travels around to see the different rooms and their occupants. This is direct out of the submarine in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and Anderson has used that same trick elsewhere. Instead of accusing him of total theft, though, I was charmed by it.
Then I found myself marvelling over exactly how adorable Sally Hawkins is. She's not what you would call traditionally beautiful, but there is something so quirky and alive about her face that you can't take your eyes off her. I've certainly noticed this before, but it was like I was having a moment with it during this viewing.
Okay, I've got two more candidates to watch and two more slots to go in this series. See you in October ... if I remember..
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