Paddington 2 rather famously this week became the best reviewed film of all time (at least according to film analysis aggregator Rotten Tomatoes). Let that sink in for a minute.

Paddington 2 is the BEST. REVIEWED. FILM. OF. ALL. TIME.

And it deserves it.

Not because it is revelatory or experimentally artistic or makes a bold statement about the human condition … no, Paddington 2 deserves all the accolades it can get because it is finely crafted, beautifully acted, utterly charming, zippily entertaining with an emotional center so firmly grounded in acceptance and kindness, wit and love that for one brief moment the moviegoer forgets the combative, mean-spirited, divisive state of the world today. Roll your eyes if you want, but that little CGI bear with the quizzical expression, worried eyes, playful demeanor, earnest ineptitude, and soft-spoken ways (Ben Whishaw’s voiceover work deserves an Oscar) offers the audience hope.

Paddington repeats a mantra taught to him by his beloved Aunt Lucy in times of both great duress and great joy: “If we are kind and polite, the world will be right.” Amen. The wee ursine is nothing but good humor and bonhomie in a duffle coat and cloche hat.

The film is about as political as an episode of Mr. Rogers. Although, in this day and age, the hypocritically devout have somehow turned the words “love thy neighbor” into a declaration of war. No, the most subversive concepts in the film are that difference brings strength, hard work will always be rewarded, and everyone deserves a chance to love and be loved in return. Yet, in 2018, that philosophy almost sounds revolutionary.

The central cast returns for this second outing, directed with storybook charm by series helmer Paul King. Luminous, crackerjack Sally Hawkins is the perfect Mrs. Brown, her steely fragility and nervous authority a perfect foil for a little bear who doles out hugs and marmalade sandwiches in equal measure. Hugh Bonneville offers a loving and postmodern portrait of the exasperated sitcom dad in Mr. Brown. Julie Walters is an irascible, mischievous delight as Mrs. Bird, the Browns’ housekeeper and Mrs. Brown’s mother.

Newcomers include Brendan Gleeson as Knuckles McGinty, a cuddly felon whose bark far exceeds his bite and Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan, a charming narcissist whose failed acting career and total lack of a moral compass lead him to a life of crime (at Paddington’s expense).

I have to say that I love Grant’s second life as a wackadoodle character actor. It suits him far better than his floppy-haired wannabe heartthrob days ever did.

The episodic plot is part caper, part allegory as Paddington – in hopes of acquiring the perfect birthday present to send back home to Aunt Lucy in deepest, darkest Peru – sets off to earn money through a series of odd jobs, poorly but comically executed. In the process, he finds himself at cross-purposes with Grant’s Phoenix who sets Paddington up as a “fall bear” for the lapsed thespian’s life of larceny. The Browns do everything they can to free Paddington from the pokey; Paddington ends up teaching his fellow inmates the joys of baking and gardening and fine linens; and, after a hair-raising chase aboard two trains racing down parallel tracks, Phoenix gets his comeuppance and all is right (for the moment) in Paddington’s picaresque/picturesque world.

Trust me, it’s not the plot that sells this picture. Rather, the character details and the environments – which are so beautifully drawn, so detailed, and so vivid – offer a spot-on cinematic realization of author Michael Bond’s original book series. Every shot is carefully, thoughtfully composed to evoke the whimsy of pen-and-ink illustration. In one transfixing sequence Paddington, in fact, does traverse through London as depicted in the water color pages of an antique pop-up book.

(I do wonder that, if we all read the same books as children, how some of us ended up so callous and cruel, indifferent to the needs and challenges of others. I’ll never understand that. Not ever.)

There are very few films that are an honest-to-goodness love letter to childhood and to childlike innocence. Paddington 2 is one of them. Don’t miss it. We all need a bit more joy in our lives these days.

Please look after this bear, indeed … or maybe it is he who is looking after us.

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Reel Roy Reviews is now TWO books! You can purchase your copies by clicking here (print and digital). In addition to online ordering at Amazon or from the publisher Open Books, the first book is currently is being carried by Bookbound, Common Language Bookstore, and Crazy Wisdom Bookstore and Tea Room in Ann Arbor, Michigan and by Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, Michigan. My mom Susie Duncan Sexton’s Secrets of an Old Typewriter series is also available on Amazon and at Bookbound and Common Language.