“Paddington in Peru” is the third installment of the highly acclaimed Paddington franchise and the feature-length directorial debut of Dougal Wilson, taking the helm from the first two films’ director, Paul King. In the movie, Paddington gets a message from the Home for Retired Bears’ Reverend Mother, played by Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, saying that his Aunt Lucy misses him. In response, Paddington and the rest of the Brown family fly to Peru to visit her. However, they are told she has gone missing. So the Browns get help from an odd local adventurer Hunter Cabot, played by Antonio Banderas, to go find her through the vast Amazon and soon discover a legendary treasure. Unbeknownst to the Browns, Hunter’s family curse has given him a destructive multi-personality disorder.
Most of the main cast from the previous two films returns for this movie, with Emily Mortimer replacing Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Mary Brown. Mortimer embodies Mary’s character well while also making the role her own. In a nice change of pace, it does not follow the same “Henry mistrusts Paddington but they reconcile by the end” storyline of the last two. Dougal Wilson accurately continues this wonderful world of thrilling action and hilarious zaniness.
However, “Paddington in Peru” emphasized an underlying problem in the franchise: the Browns’ kids being under-utilized. It seems after each film Judy and Jonathan have less character-driven things to do and their traits are often used as mere plot devices. Judy’s subplot about going to college soon was decently handled. She clearly grew for this new chapter of her life and her mother learned to let her go. This relates well to Paddington’s journey with his tribe. While this sub-plot has sufficient resolution, Jonathan was not given much to do. His interest in engineering only served as a plot device and he was barely given any lines.
Banderas clearly had a blast playing Hunter and his ancestors. Sometimes in the movie, he had a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on with the ghost of his ancestors causing him to make bad decisions, leading to some amusing shenanigans. His journey to taking down this curse and choosing family over it was great. Olivia Colman is an interesting actor, as her popularity depends on your neck of the woods. She’s a skilled comedic and dramatic actor, which made for a solid performance in this movie. The Reverend Mother was more of an eccentric character which made Colman a good casting choice. Overall, her and Banderas’ casting made up for the Browns kids not having much of an impact on the film. In the end, “Paddington in Peru” was an enjoyable experience. It has a good amount of heart and is fun for the whole family.