Nanny McPhee 2006
This is an enjoyable british movie for children. It reminds me of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It isn’t high art, but it is a fun, sweet movie. Emma Thompson, who also wrote the screenplay, plays Nanny McPhee, the only person who will take the job of managing widower Colin Firth’s seven horrible children. She shows up in mysterious circumstances and it quickly becomes clear that she has magical powers. Meanwhile, Firth’s aunt (Angela Lansbury) has threatened to cut off his financial support if he doesn’t marry by the end of the month. This would force him out of the house and his children into work camps (it’s England).
The movie mostly follows the rebellious children trying to find a way to misbehave and Nanny McPhee finding some pretty funny ways to stop them and teach them important lessons at the same time. There is also another plot thread where Firth needs to get married and decides on the town widow in spite of the fact that he doesn’t really even like her. Most of this is by the numbers and though there are some twists and turns, they are generally telegraphed well in advance. Still, it is fun watching the very restrained Nanny McPhee get the best of the children and seeing how quickly magic can train children.
This isn’t a great movie, but it has some charm and is worth watching. I’ll give it a B.
Update in 2021: I was able to get a free digital copy of this movie from Universal Rewards and watched it again despite my lukewarm original review. It is easy to watch. It could have been a little more subtle about some things, but it really spells everything out. It’s funny to see Angela Lansbury in this looking almost exactly like Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey. A few months after I got this, Universal made the sequel available, so I got that too and will watch it soon.
Owned on: Digital