Directed by Kirk Jones
From a script by Emma Thompson and based on the ‘Nurse Matilda’ books by Christianna Brand.
The film stars Emma Thompson as Nanny McPhee and Colin Firth as Mr Brown. The premise of the movie is that Mr Brown is a recently widow(er)ed mortician and that his seven children are naughty but nice. So naughty though, that they have exhausted the wits and patience of every nanny who has ever looked after them. At the start of the film, the 17th and, it would appear, final Nanny is harassed and harried by the children in a scene of relentless mayhem. This leaves Mr Brown with a problem. Who will look after his children ? Fortunately help is at hand and Nanny McPhee appears, as if by magic, just when she is needed.
And needed she is, because childcare is the least (or at least only one) of Mr Brown’s problems. His finances are in a ruinous state, and he and the family have been living on an allowance provided by a rich spinster, “Great Aunt Adelaide”, played by Angela Lansbury. A condition of the continuation of this allowance is that Mr Brown must remarry within the month. Great Aunt Adelaide cannot abide naughty children and believes that a mother’s (presumably stern) presence is required to bring the household back into good order. This device provides an element of time pressure and concomitant opportunities for suspense and frantic humour as the stakes mount.
Nanny McPhee’s arrival is deliberately reminiscent of Mary Poppins and the parallels between the stories are obvious. Fortunately, the audience are treated as intelligent human beings and the differences between the stories unfold in an interesting and amusing manner.
Nanny McPhee promises Mr Brown that she will teach the children set lessons based on basic rules and uses a combination of Granny Weatherwax style ‘headology’ and real magic to achieve her ends. With each lesson, her rather witch-like ugliness seems to soften. At first this is quite subtle, but as each lesson is learned, so Nanny McPhee’s transformation continues until it is obvious to everyone that something is going on.
Mr Brown’s frantic search for a bride is, perhaps, the weakest element of the story. His obvious love for his dead wife, his seemingly restricted choice of partners (I mean come on, he’s played by Colin “Mr Darcy” Firth !) and the obvious love interest from his servant, Evangeline (played by Kelly Macdonald), are all played out with somewhat predictable consequences. Evangeline’s (off screen) Pygmalion style transformation from maid to young lady is achieved with an all too convenient haste that also requires an enhanced suspension of disbelief. The feel-good, but overly slapstick, ending is the only part of the film that seems entirely aimed at children. Despite these flaws, everything is played out with a buoyant and exuberant good humour and it is difficult not to get carried along and enjoy one’s self.
The tone is at times quite dark and there are a few genuinely unsettling moments (a baby, a large cleaver and a soup pot come to mind). This gives the film a slight edginess and saves it from a Disney style saccharine overload. The central performances from adults and children are uniformly excellent and the script is both witty and inventive. The closest analogy I can provide is to imagine Mary Poppins reinvented by Roald Dahl.
Overall, the film is certainly enjoyable for adults, but it is intended as a children’s film and the moral lessons at its heart are good and wholesome, so parents and teachers need not fear their innocent wards will be corrupted.
Nanny McPhee goes on general release on the 27th of January
John Davidson is in his early forties and has worked in IT for the last 20 years. He is married, has two young daughters and lives in Scotland. Ideally he spends his spare time reading and watching movies, but this is curtailed by the calls of child-rearing and part-time study for a B.A. at the Open University. He started collecting comics in the early 80s and has a pretty decent, if mainstream, collection and this leads him to spend far too much time reading and writing nothing in particular on the Millarworld message boards.