Nanny McPhee Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)February 3rd, 2006
NANNY MCPHEE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2
NANNY MCPHEE, by director Kirk Jones (WAKING NED), is a fairy tale about seven young hellions who live with their permissive father in a large but dilapidated English country house. These most horrible kids imaginable are led by Simon Brown (Thomas Sangster), the oldest of the brood. Typical of their day's activities is tying up and gagging the cook so they can completely trash the kitchen. Their pride and joy is their ability to scare off every nanny who dares set foot in their house. As the story opens, their seventeenth caregiver is running away screaming because the kids cooked the baby and started eating it like a turkey. Of course, no baby is harmed in the production of this kids' movie. The children just claimed to be devouring the littlest Brown in order to frighten away their adult supervision.
Filmed in colors so oversaturated that everyone appears to be wearing fire-engine red lipstick, it may have you looking for your remote control so that you can adjust the color. This is a silly and sometimes sweet film that plays to the kids, not the adults, in the audience. One big and frenetic food fight is done only with the most colorful confections imaginable.
Into this jolly and boisterous tale comes a magical woman named Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson). She tells their father (Colin Firth playing Colin Firth, although his character is called Cedric Brown) that she will handle them. He need not worry any longer. A complete incompetent as a parent, Cedric talks on occasion to the empty chair by the fireplace where his dead wife used to sit.
In short order, Nanny McPhee has the kids no longer chopping the heads off of dolls with their toy guillotines and has them saying please and thank you through a carefully administered, tough-love program. Starting off as one of the ugliest women alive, the nanny slowly looses her warts and other facial anomalies. By the end, she is as lovely in looks as the kids are in manners.
This CHEAPER BY THE HALF DOZEN PLUS story does have its charms, but adults will probably quickly tire of its antics. One can't, however, fault its messages.
The story ends with it's most magical and delightful moment. This event, however, is only worth waiting for if your kids are enjoying the movie. Otherwise, a little of NANNY MCPHEE can go a long way.
NANNY MCPHEE runs a long 1:37. It is rated PG for "mild thematic elements, some rude humor and brief language" and would be acceptable for all ages.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the Silicon Valley, it is showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
