NANNY McPHEE

A nanny as lovable and endearing as the saintly Mary Poppins... despite her hideous latex make-up and enormous fanny bustle.

At the outset of this whimsical and distinctly British family comedy, Emma Thompson’s warty, homely and deliciously stern titular character utters something along the lines of the following to her unruly young charges: “As long as you need me but do not want me, I shall stay. But when you want me and do not need me, I must go.” (Cue: Vickie immediately choking back tears.) At that moment, I knew that not only would everyone in the film fall for Nanny McPhee, but so would everyone in the audience.

Based on the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand, and with a terrifically sharp screenplay penned by Thompson, the film takes a fairly standard story and infuses it with humor, heart and cute Bassett hounds. Widower Cedric Brown (Colin Firth) has seven wild children, whose favorite pastime is driving away the nannies hired to mind them. In record time, the rambunctious rugrats – led by eldest brother, Simon (Love Actually’s Thomas Sangster) – dispose of one terrified governess after another. Watching from the sidelines are the family’s stout and sturdy cook (Imelda Staunton) and the winsome, introverted “scullery maid,” Evangeline (Kelly Macdonald). At his wit’s end, Cedric searches for someone, anyone, who can reign in his kids, and before you can say “a spoonful of sugar,” the mildly intimidating and wholly unattractive Nanny McPhee (Thompson) mysteriously shows up on his doorstep. She’s a woman with a plan to tame the small savage beasts…and a magical walking stick with all kinds of mystical properties.

While Nanny McPhee wrangles the kids, cash-strapped Cedric tackles his own dilemma. His haughty, wealthy, bird-like Great Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury) has issued an ultimatum: find a new wife within a month or be financially cut-off immediately. Without any obvious (to him, anyway) prospects in sight, Cedric resigns himself to settling for amorous widow, Mrs. Quickly (Celia Imrie, in a brilliantly over-the-top performance). But will he wind up marrying a woman his children hate? Will Nanny McPhee transform the little tyrants? Will Vickie still be choking back tears by the time the closing credits roll?

Methinks we all know the answers, but that doesn’t make the film’s journey any less fun.

Thompson is, not surprisingly, wonderful. Forget Sarah Jessica Parker’s throat-clearing tic in The Family Stone -- nothing beats the multi-layered subtext contained in each and every one of Nanny McPhee’s guttural “hmms.” There’s the disapproving hmm, the displeased hmm, the skeptical hmm, the impressed hmm… and the list goes on. Nevermind that she manages to create a nanny as lovable and endearing as the saintly Mary Poppins while she’s wrapped in hideous latex make-up and an enormous fanny bustle.

The stellar supporting cast, from the grown-ups to the pint-sized co-stars, are all just as good, with the aforementioned Imrie and Macdonald standouts with their two vastly different roles. Kudos also go to the production designers and sound editors for their skilled work at creating a super-saturated palette on which to conduct the action, and the perfectly pitched music and effects which add a twinkle to the already fanciful proceedings that will entertain the under-12 set as much as it will delight countless grown-ups.