London is the place for me

I’ve only ever seen two films twice at the cinema. One was Mission: Impossible 3, which was entirely accidental (I hadn't even seen the previous two films, and still haven't). The other was Paddington, and it was entirely of my own free will.

Michael Bond’s Paddington books were my favourites when I was a young child; I chortled away at them until tears ran down my face. So when I heard they were making a big screen CGI version of my favourite bear, I was a little apprehensive. However, having heard good things from others who had seen it, noting its impressive cast list and that Bond had given his blessing to the film, even appearing in a brief cameo, I decided to brave it.

I had no need to worry.  The film is utterly charming from start to finish.  The CGI Paddington is endearing and perfectly voiced by Ben Whishaw, in all his hat-wearing politeness, and the story itself stays true to spirit of the original tales.

As is the fashion with films these days, it opens with a backstory for our ursine hero in Darkest Peru, with his Aunt Lucy and Uncle Pastuzo, and a British explorer, who manages to civilise the bears through marmalade and talk of a London that will always give them a warm welcome.  The gentle satirising of Britishness begins within the first few minutes and is littered throughout the film.  An earthquake that ruins the bears' home is the catalyst for Paddington to stow away on a cargo ship headed for London in search of that warm welcome.  However, when he arrives at Paddington station he is disappointed to find a London where “hardly anyone wear a hat or says hello.”

Fortunately, the young bear is taken in by the Brown family, played superbly in their eccentricities by Hugh Bonneville, as Mr Brown, who likes all his stationary in order, and Sally Hawkins, as Mrs Brown, an illustrator who struggles to keep her emotions in check.  Julie Walters puts in an excellent turn as Mrs Bird (in the books the Browns' housekeeper, but here an elderly relative) who likes everything ship-shape, keeps a hoover for all occasions and doesn’t trust the microwave.  Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin are also excellent as Judy and Jonathan.  ("You have literally just brought home a random bear", says Judy, aghast with teenage horror.)

As Mr Brown scrambles to get a bear added to his home insurance, mayhem ensues, from a spot of bother with the facilities, to a misunderstanding with a pickpocket and a mishap on the escalators in the Underground.  The slapstick is never overplayed and Paddington's genuine good intentions mean it never grates.  Jim Broadbent as Mr Gruber adds a touch of magic too, with his labyrinth of an antique shop and his train set delivering tea.

To add drama to the story, Nicole Kidman plays a villainous taxidermist out for revenge, aided by creepy nextdoor neighbour, Mr Curry (Peter Capaldi, in a wonderful cringe-worthy turn).  When Paddington finds his life in danger, the Brown family realise that they need Paddington every bit as much as he needs them, and band together to set out and rescue him.  (Supplying the 'mild peril' which, along with a flirtatious security guard and a spot of cross dressing, earned the film its scandalous PG certification).

The soundtrack is provided in part by D Lime, a Cuban band who perform live in the film, encapsulating the vibrant multicultural atmosphere of the London that Paddington comes to embrace - a place where “nobody’s alike, which means everyone fits in.”

Lessons about immigration aside, Paddington is an absolute delight, with plenty of humour for children and adults alike.  If you want something to make you chuckle and warm your heart this Easter, look no further.  This bear has been well and truly looked after.

Paddington was released on DVD today.

The best laid plans...

Book Two

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (1937)

For several generations of British schoolchildren, this staple of GCSE English Literature syllabuses will be all-too familiar.  However, it wasn't on the menu during my school career and I hadn't got around to reading it as an adult either.  Our Year 10s have just started studying it and I am therefore pleased to announce that I have finally joined the ranks of those who have read Of Mice and Men.

Steinbeck's classic tale of the Great Depression and the American Dream has been endlessly deconstructed by students and English teachers for years, as successive generations search desperately for yet another original interpretation.  In order to judge the story on its own merits, I decided to avoid reading any of these before I started.

It’s a short novella, written by Steinbeck as a ‘playable novel’, resulting in large portions of dialogue and limited settings, with the majority of the scenes taking place inside the bunkhouse or the barn, making it easier to transfer to stage.  The story doesn't suffer for this, and in fact, it didn't really occur to me until I had finished reading. The accented dialect of the ranch hands is written out phonetically, which I have found off-putting in the past, but works really well here. I could hear the voices of the characters in my head as I read it.

It’s an intense story, with the action taking place over the course of just a few days, from Lennie and George first arriving on the ranch to the tragic ending in the brush four days later.  The whole book is really one ominous foreshadowing that leaves the conclusion inevitable, from the moment we first learn about the incident in Weed and witness Lennie’s initial meeting with Curley’s wife. However, although it quite clearly is, it never feels like an obvious setup and instead only contributes to the intensity of the drama.

Although Steinbeck has important messages about the society of 1930's America, the characters are so exquisitely crafted that the story never feels like a lecture.  The racism, discrimination and sexism inherent in society at the time of the book's publication is superbly exposed to the reader through the microcosm of life on the ranch.

But the core running through the centre of the novel is the friendship between George and Lennie.  Lennie, the giant with the child's mind who doesn't know his own strength, and the quicker-witted George share a bond that is belied by George's chastisement and which serves to make the conclusion even more devastating.

If you’re one of the few people who haven’t yet read the novella, or the revision guides, or written numerous essays on the multi-layered metaphor of Candy’s dog, I won’t go into too many details of the story. If you haven’t read it, it’s a simple but brilliant story that unfortunately may have become obscured and fogged by exhaustive scrutiny. And if you did read it in school, I would recommend a re-visit without the pressure of annotation and analysis, to enjoy it for the bleak yet powerful story of failed dreams that it truly is.

Five stars.

My 2015 Reading Challenge Begins

As a child, I was a voracious reader; under the covers with a torch, in the corner at parties, behind a maths textbook at school – name a time and place I shouldn’t have been reading and you can bet I would have been.  I devoured the entire library at my first school with two years left to go.  But something happened when I was 18 and went off to University.  Suddenly I stopped reading for pleasure.  I worked my way through lengthy reading lists, of academic texts and journal articles, but when the work was done, I didn’t want to read anymore.

This persisted after I graduated and through my twenties.  In 2014, I decided that would change.  As it’s often said – all great writers read.  And if I wanted to call myself a writer, truly, I would have to start reading.  So, in January 2014 I charged myself with reading 12 books that year – one a month.  I set aside time each week to read.

I completed my challenge, skidding up to the deadline on New Year’s Eve as I raced through the last few chapters of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Stories.  I looked back over the list of books I had read that year and felt rather pleased with myself.  Except – I couldn’t really remember all that many details about the books I had read.

So when I set myself the same challenge for 2015 – 12 books in 12 months – I decided that, alongside the reading, I would also write a short review of every book, to serve as an aide de memoire at the end of the year, and ensure that all that reading didn’t go completely to waste.  And lucky for you, dear reader, I’m going to share them with you.  I may have some unusual recommendations you wouldn’t have previously considered, or I may steer you clear of something you’d thought was going to be interesting.  Who knows?

Book One

(Yes, I am aware that the beginning of March is a little late to be finishing only my first book, but January 2015 was something of a write-off in terms of leisure time for reasons I won’t bore you with.)

Doctor Who: Marco Polo by John Lucarotti

(A Target Book, published 1985)

Ok, I know, not exactly a literary classic to kick off with, but I needed an easy read to get myself back into the swing of things. I’ve been watching the Classic Doctor Who episodes from the beginning and this is one of the missing episodes, so I decided to buy the Target book instead.

Like all the Target novelisations, this doesn’t feature exceptional prose.  I don’t know how much of the dialogue is lifted from the original episodes, but at times it does feel like a script with the odd stage direction thrown in here and there.  There are some nice descriptions of thirteenth century China and Mongolia though.

In terms of plot, it’s fairly slow-moving and a little obvious, since we know that there is no way the Doctor is going to end up letting the mighty Kublai Khan keep his TARDIS, but the historical aspects of the story were interesting enough to keep me reading, even if I hadn't have been interested in the adventures of the Doctor and his companions.   I felt that Messer Polo himself came across as somewhat dense and easily fooled, but that may have been the intention of the author.

Lucarotti’s interpretation is witty at times and I could definitely hear the character’s voices in my head when I was reading.  However, one of my bugbears with this book, and with the other novelisations, is that Ian seems to come across as a bit of a chauvinistic pig and Barbara as a bit of a wet lettuce, which isn’t the impression I get from watching the programme at all.

Overall?  An easy read and not especially gripping, but, if nothing else, it got me to do a significant amount of background reading on a period of history I previously knew very little about.  Three stars.