The kids may not need it, but a spoonful of sugar might help Nanny McPhee Returns go down many an adult gullet. Sadly, sugar appears to be on ration in this World War II-set sequel. But poop isn’t.
Emma Thompson (who also serves as screenwriter) is back as that other magical nanny. In the first film, she came to the rescue of a Victorian widower with seven unruly children. This time around, she arrives to the English countryside farm of harried Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal with a surprisingly believable English accent). Isabel is temporarily a single mum of three–to responsible Norman (Asa Butterfield), tomboyish Megsie (Lil Woods) and youngest moppet Vincent (Oscar Steer)–while her husband (blink-and-you’ll-miss-him Ewan McGregor) is off fighting the Germans in the war. As if her hands weren’t already full, her spoiled, wealthy niece and nephew, Cyril (Eros Vlahos) and Celia (Rosie Taylor-Ritson) have just recently come to live with them because London is no longer safe thanks to the Blitz.
The big-city cousins are not happy with their new rustic surroundings, what with all the pig, horse and chicken dung flowing in rivers around the property. They slip and slide in it and Celia loses her suitcase of new clothes to it, inciting a war between the country mice and city mice. Isabel hardly has time to negotiate a peace, though, what with her job assisting a batty old general store owner (Maggie Smith), fighting off her shady brother-in-law Phil (Rhys Ifans) who wants to sell the farm, and preparing to harvest a barley crop. That’s where warty, hairy and generally unpleasant-looking Nanny McPhee and her flatulent black crow named Edelweiss come in. Aided by the magic from her gnarly walking stick, she teaches the children lessons in sharing, teamwork, and not judging a book by its poop-smeared cover. With each lesson they learn, she grows more physically attractive to them and to us.
Based on the “Nurse Matilda” children’s book series by Christianna Brand, Nanny McPhee Returns is another of this summer’s disappointing live-action kiddie flicks. Although it is certainly several notches above the abysmal Marmaduke or equally awful Furry Vengeance, it never quite takes off. Perhaps it’s because Thompson’s script colors so closely inside the lines of the 2005 original, despite being set 50 years ahead in time. It’s understandable that Ms. Thompson (who reportedly almost dropped out of her role in the final Harry Potter installments to make this sequel) wants to give younger audiences what they expect–flying, synchronized-swimming pigs among them–but having those expectations met in such predictable fashion grows tedious among the older set. Also tedious: all that scatological humor.
At least director Susanna White delivers on some of the film’s promised magic with CG-assisted special effects, including the previously mentioned porcine acrobats and a fireworks display that gave the film its British release title, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. It’s surprising that White chose not to produce the film in this summer’s ubiquitous 3D technology. I can’t believe I’m about to say it, but I wonder if that was the smartest decision. As it is, the spectacle in the film is nice but hardly 3D-worthy. Still, with a little more effort and a pair of glasses, it could have sparkled. I suppose, though, spending 108 minutes without those glasses does make it easier to focus on the mystical au pair’s moral lesson plan.
As an actress, Thompson always delivers and her portrayal of Nanny McPhee is stern but not dour, with just enough twinkling mischief to charm. Likewise, British bests Smith, Ifans, and a surprise cameo by Ralph Fiennes (who now perpetually looks like Lord Voldemort to me) are all amusing but not standout. It’s chubby blonde Vlahos who turns in the best performance of the film with his spot-on comic timing and wry British delivery. Not bad, kid.
Nanny McPhee Returns is fine for teaching a moral and a little European history to wee ones but will likely bore their adult chaperones. It wasn’t a bad film; it just wasn’t supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
it was a good movie and the first one was the best i seen in years. they need more like these
My kids enjoyed the first Nanny McPhee. I’m sure they will enjoy this one too, since they are suckers for flying pigs and any scatalogical humor.
Luckily for me, I’ve found that I can all asleep now at the theater or better yet, I can let someone else take them to see the real stinkers.