anny McPhee begins with the Brown family's 17th nanny screaming as she flees their house. Reputed to be the toughest nanny in town, she crumbles when it looks like six naughty children have become cannibals and eaten their baby sister for lunch. Of course, they haven't. They're just good con artists.
Cedric Brown (Firth) is at his wit's end. A recent widower, he talks to the chair where his wife used to sit, asking for advice. He's keeping a secret from his children. Working at the local funeral parlor doesn't pay enough to support a big family. His late wife's rich relative, Great Aunt Adelaide (Lansbury), has been providing a monthly allowance all these years. But now that her niece has died, Aunt Adelaide is appalled at the sudden and horrible behavior of the children. Believing that the only solution is for Cedric to find a new wife, Aunt Adelaide gives him an ultimatum. If he doesn't get married within the month, she won't part with another penny. Losing Aunt Adelaide's support means Cedric will lose his house, go to debtor's prison, and see his children end up in workhouses.
Knowing nothing about their father's dire straits, the children have spiraled out of control. They miss their mother. They mistake their father's anxiety for disinterest. And using fairy tales as proof positive, the children are convinced that if he remarries, their stepmother is bound to be an evil woman who will manipulate them all. Therefore, they decide that the best way to protect their family is to misbehave so that no woman in her right mind would marry into it.
When the local nanny agency refuses to do business with Cedric, he begins getting mysterious messages that what he really needs is Nanny McPhee (Thompson). She soon shows up on his doorstep (complete with warts, a uni-brow and a snaggletooth) as a fairy-tale version of Nanny 911.
There's something about Mary
This is a surprisingly good movie. Visually, Nanny McPhee is gorgeous. The setting is a lush fairy-tale world with modern-day sensibilities. The Brown family lives in a countryside castle that has the coziness of a cottage. The costumes, sets and scenery are rich and yet manage to match the story's wry sense of humor.
The film's flaw is its similarity to Mary Poppins: A magical nanny mysteriously arrives in the nick of time to help a family in trouble, then leaves when she is no longer needed. However, that's where the similarities end. Nanny McPhee is like Poppins' twisted sister who uses tough love to teach lessons. For example, the Brown children pretend to have the measles. Instead of teaching the children that medicine goes down easier with a spoonful of sugar, Nanny McPhee bewitches them to feel as sick as they pretend to be. Her magic traps them in their beds so they can't get up. To add insult to injury, she gives them horrible medicine that eerily moves by itself in the spoon.
Although not nearly as dark as Lemony Snicket's work, Nanny McPhee has a wicked wit and sense of fun. When it's dark, it's very good, but when it crosses the line into cute territory (which, to its credit, rarely happens) it can be cloying.
Nanny McPhee is a "must see" for young children and unjaded tweens. Emma Thompson won an Oscar for her adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, and she proves she can adapt children's books with a sure hand. What makes this movie shine is its emphasis on the importance of giving children what they need, as opposed to indulging them with what they want.
