The trailer for Paddington in Peru (2024) had this Catholic reviewer excited.  Any preview you cared to look at for it featured the Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman), a nun.  In the movie, she is the head of a retirement home for bears, her sisters looking after the aging bruins.  If such a place actually existed, leave it to an order of female religious to be running it.  Given that this is the third in Paddington franchise, a series of films with as pure a heart as I have seen, I figured that my Faith would be at least somewhat well represented.  All throughout the proceedings, I prayed that this would be the case.  For the most part, those prayers were answered, save for one final twist for which you will have to read on in order to find out about it.  Or you could see it for yourself.  That would be a good decision, too.

The first few minutes (and much of the rest) are literally Paddington in Peru.  As a young cub, Paddington Brown (voiced by Ben Whishaw) reaches for an orange hanging over a cliff, only to plunge into a river below, and be swept downstream.  Before going over a set of deadly falls, he is saved by his Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton), who raised Paddington before he came to London.  You can learn all about that in the first Paddington (2014).  Since then, the Brown family that took him in has grown up, and Paddington tells his Aunt Lucy all about the changes as he writes to her back in Peru.  He is about to finish his missive when he receives an update from the Reverend Mother saying that something has gone wrong with Aunt Lucy.  Now that he has a British passport, Paddington asks his family if they might go to South America for a visit.  Mary Brown (Emily Mortimer), the matriarch, thinks this is a good idea, a way of reconnecting with a family that is growing apart.  Initially, Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville), the patriarch, is against it. What changes his mind is remembering what Madison (Hayley Atwell), Henry’s boss at the insurance company where he works, told him about the need to take more risks.  With that, it is off to Peru and into the Amazonian jungle.  Upon arriving at the secluded retirement home, Paddington runs immediately to Aunt Lucy’s cabin only to find it empty.  The Reverend Mother enters and informs Paddington that Aunt Lucy is missing.  That the elderly bruin would depart as she apparently did is odd to everyone particularly as she had been looking forward to the visit from her adopted nephew. Upon further inspection of Aunt Lucy’s quarters, Paddington finds a map.  Conveniently labeled with directions as to where to start looking is a place called Rumi Rock.  The Reverend Mother urges the Browns to head in that direction when Paddington suggests it, but claims a fear of the jungle, so does not accompany them.  The Browns, though, do leave behind their housekeeper, Mrs. Bird (Julie Walters), to relay any news.  The guide they end up hiring for the trek is Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas).  When Hunter is first approached, he is reminded by his daughter, Gina Cabot (Carla Tous), that the Cabots do not go near Rumi Rock.  It is not only Paddington’s earnest appeals that change Hunter’s mind, but also the ghosts of his treasure hunting family that convince him to take the Browns in his boat.  Hunter suffers from delusions of his ancestors who lost their lives scouring the Amazonian jungle in search of El Dorado, the lost city of gold.  Hunter’s hauntings get worse when he notices a bracelet on Paddington’s wrist, one rumored to be the key to entering the legendary location.  Gina spots an uptick in her father’s greedy behavior, but he maroons her on the bank of the river.  Unfortunately, his skills at guiding the vessel are lacking, and he soon goes overboard when hit on the head by an errant boom.  Thus, the Browns wake up in the morning to a pilotless boat.  Paddington is the first to notice no one being at the helm, and of course he bungles things and sinks the ship.  Because he was born in the wilds of Peru, he is convinced he can get them to Rumi Rock by foot.  He is miraculously successful, but it is Hunter that beats him to the location.  Because of Paddington’s eagerness to find Aunt Lucy, he is easily convinced by Hunter to press on when the bear hears his roar echoed.  Paddington believes it is Aunt Lucy answering his call, but Hunter is convinced it will lead them to El Dorado.  Back at the retirement home, Mrs. Bird uncovers a secret room where the Reverend Mother is electronically keeping tabs on the Brown’s progress.  The nun is worried that they are veering off course, and takes Mrs. Bird in a plane called The Miracle (fitting) to try and catch them.  The Browns are spotted next to the river and are picked up by Mrs. Bird and the Reverend Mother, their vehicle luckily having the ability to land on water.  As for Hunter and Paddington, they make it to ruins of a city, but Hunter’s aggressiveness stops Paddington from immediately using his bracelet to open a doorway that supposedly leads to riches.  This changes when the Browns and the Reverend Mother get to the scene.  It turns out that the Reverend Mother is not actually a nun, but Clarissa Cabot, part of the same family with gold fever.  Paddington neutralizes Hunter with a hard stare for the older man’s bad manners, and clumsiness takes care of Clarissa.  From there, Paddington reveals a doorway into El Dorado, which is actually an orange grove inhabited by the same bears among whom Paddington was born.  They have been taking care of Aunt Lucy, and the Browns are able to return everyone to where they are supposed to be, including Paddington with them back to London.  We close with a visit from Paddington’s bear relatives to the Brown family.

As should be no surprise, there are a lot of Bears in Paddington in Peru.  As will also be obvious for those of you who regularly read my reviews, they are the least of my concerns.  Do not get me wrong, I love them and the story, but my focus is always on matters of Faith.  Cinematically speaking, the nuns provide a lot more fodder in this regard.  Indeed, what I focus on most is how representatives of the Church are portrayed in the movie.  This sort of analysis was honed during my Ph.D. studies, and you can see the result of that work in my dissertation, “The Costumed Catholic: Catholics, Whiteness, and the Movies, 1928-1973.”  Much of my fourth chapter is dedicated to female religious, and thus having a group of sisters tending aging bears is not surprising.  Being women, there was a period during the Cold War that they were considered a safe, if trivial example of on-screen Catholicism.  At the same time, I was serious with my assertion in the introduction that if a retirement home for bruins existed, it would be staffed by nuns.  Despite its silliness, there are some fair depictions of nun life in the movie.  They are dedicated to their work, caring for the infirm with patience and zeal.  There is a moment towards the end when Mrs. Bird is with them and she acts as a disc jockey (DJ) for a dance party at the home.  If you think that is impossible, you are not paying attention what nuns do these days.  Finally, the part I probably took the most pleasure in was seeing Clarissa’s order forgive her on condition that she take vows to become a real nun.  That does smack of being forced into a religious vocation, but it is, at least, not rejection.  It is a form of forgiveness, and the clergy are some of the most forgiving people in the world, praise God.

Speaking of praising God, there are some great lines in Paddington in Peru that can be applied to prayer.  The first to highlight is when Aunt Lucy tells the young Paddington that if he is ever lost, to just roar and she will answer back wherever she is.  I like the idea of calling out to God and knowing that He will respond, that no matter what He hears and sees us, and responds.  Sometimes a situation seems more desperate to us, and that is when we need to roar the loudest.  Yet, we sometimes think that no matter how full throated we are, there is a lack of an answer from God.  When this belief creeps in, we can become more cautious, more self-reliant, and as a result, more distant from God.  This latter outcome is not ideal in any circumstance.  There is also a solution to this given in the film.  Paddington basically quotes Aunt Lucy, who says that when skies are gray, hope lights the way.  To have that hope, one has to be willing to take risks.  I have heard other, real nuns describe this as being like jumping off a cliff.  That hope becomes trust that God will be there to support you lest, as in Psalm 91:12, your foot be dashed against a rock.  This may seem like a superhuman ability, but Paddington embodies the kind of attitude needed.  Throughout, it is his firm belief that he will be reunited with Aunt Lucy.  He is almost defeated by the rock wall he finally comes to before getting to El Dorado, especially when he realizes that his roars are echoing off it.  His doubt passes just as quickly and he is rewarded for his efforts.  I pray that you might be able to have the same effort, and that you meet your own Aunt Lucy in Heaven.

Paddington in Peru, like its predecessors, is a heavenly film.  I wish I could remember its predecessors better, but I do recall enjoying them immensely.  I trust you will have the same experience with this one.