Take a spoonful of “Mary Poppins” and add a handful of “Cinderella.” Throw in Director Kirk Jones (“Waking Ned Devine), Colin Firth (“Bridget Jones’s Diary”) as Mr. Brown and Academy Award Emma Thompson (“Sense and Sensibility”) who wrote the screenplay and stars in the title row. Mix in smidgens of humor, poignant moments, talking animals, and a food fight, and you have Universal Pictures’ newest release, “Nanny McPhee,” a delicious recipe for a wonderful family film. And the topping of all of this is stage and screen legend Angela Lansbury (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” television’s “Murder, She Wrote”) returning to the screen for the first time in 20 years as Mr. Brown’s imperious Aunt Adelaide.
Poor Mr. Brown! He may well be the most put-upon of all parents in the world. Not only has he recently been widowed, he also has seven of the naughtiest
children known to man. They don’t mind their manners, they never do what they are told, and they delight in driving away one nanny after another. Now the Agency refuses to send another one of their nannies to the Brown household and informs Mr. Brown that he needs Nanny McPhee. However, they don’t tell him how to find her. One night, a mysterious – and quite ugly – lady standing at his front door introduces herself, “Goodevening. I’m Nanny McPhee.”
Mr. Brown has his doubts that this person – or anyone for that matter – can handle his children. After a few questions, Nanny McPhee finds her way to
the kitchen where she encounters the Brown children in the midst of terrorizing the cook and destroying the kitchen. When she asks them to stop, they pretend not to see or hear her.
One bang of Nanny McPhee’s walking stick changes everything. Suddenly the children’s antics are beyond their control. They realize that if they want to stop, they’ll have to politely ask Nanny McPhee. In an instant, the kitchen is neat as a pin, and Cook and Evangeline the maid have no memory of what they just witnessed. But the children remember, and they begin to wonder whether they may have met their match.
In the days that follow, the children get a taste of their own medicine as their mischief seems to backfire against them. Curiously, as they begin to learn Nanny McPhee’s lessons, they notice that her appearance seems to grow…prettier. Has she really changed? Or is it just their attitude towards her that
is changing?
Based upon the ‘Nurse Matilda’ children’s books written by Christianna Brand, “Nanny McPhee” is a delightfully enchanting story that will leave audiences laughing one moment and wiping away tears the next.
Nanny McPhee is rated PG for “mild thematic elements, some rude humor, and mild language.
