Customer Reviews

Nanny McPhee Returns

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I couldn't have picked a better movie. Snaggle toothed, dreadfully homely, and a wee bit of a woman that can cause even the bravest of souls to wince, McPhee is charming. It always amazes me to watch such a beautiful actress as Emma Thompson play a character that is just so different from herself.

Beauty aside, I find that Nanny is an endearing angel that rivals even the quintessentially beautiful Mary Poppins. Sans the musical notes that dance from Julie Andrews, Emma Thompson's character provides the sane sense of ease and comfort, while teaching a horde of little demons how to behave properly.

I have to say that Emma Thompson delivers a perfect performance in this film. She's everything that a frazzled mother Mrs. Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) could wish for, especially during the trying times of World War II. Ewan McGregor plays her husband, who is off fighting the war. As often occurred during those times, he has left his young wife behind to care for the homestead and their rapscallion brood of children Norman, Megsie and Vincent. As if times weren't trying enough, the situation becomes worse when their spoiled cousins come to stay with them, escaping the Blitz.

While Mr. Green is away, his rotten brother Phil (Rhys Ifans) pressures Isabel to sell the farm to cover his own gambling debts. Five children, a frazzled mother on the brink of a nervous breakdown, and a horrid brother-in-law drives everyone to distraction.

Thus, the WWII version of Nanny 911 arrives, intent on teaching the children five valuable lessons via her own form of entrancing magic. As Nanny McPhee demonstrated in her first film, hilarity abounds, as well as life lessons that benefit the children.

Emma Thompson is magical, and her lessons to the children are filled with a patient wisdom we all could practice. My favorite part has always been the slight transformation that begins to overtake this dreadfully plain woman, making her the beauty that Thompson truly is.

I have to give this a family film 4 star, for the simple charm and magic that can hold youngsters enraptured and keep adults smiling.

This is a nice family film, somewhere between a 4 and 5 star, so I rounded up. Nannie McPhee (Emma Thompson) is a strange nannie. She is quite magical and quite delightful, but I'm getting ahead of myself. (Of course, better to be a-head than a little behind, I always say.)

The story begins on the family farm, in the English Countryside, far from London. It is WWII. Isabelle and the 3 children are taking care of the farm while the husband/father is away fighting in the war. The farm is owned by the husband and his brother Phil. The brother lives elsewhere.

Phil wants the money from his half of the farm and is pestering the heck out of Isabelle to sell it but she is trying to hang on until her husband returns. Meanwhile, Phil has incurred some gambling debts - actually, he bet the farm. Two "Hit Women" are after Phil now, threatening to remove his kidneys.

The 2 cousins are coming from the city (London) to stay at the farm because bombs are being dropped in big cities. Of course, there is a clash between the farm kids and the city kids from the minute the city kids step out of the limo and into the "Land of Poo".

There is magic in the air when Nannie McPhee shows up at the front door and quickly gets the five fighting children in line. The animals become magical, too, including the adorable baby piglets that do "synchronized swimming" (like the old Esther Williams movies). There is also a bird that belches all the time and an adorable baby elephant.

Again, it's a cute film that you can enjoy with your young children.

There's something about the Nanny McPhee character that appeals to me even more than Mary Poppins. I grant you that Nanny McPhee is no looker, what with her hairy warts, her snaggletooth, and her bulbous nose all glaring at you as if she were an endurance test for her clients. All the same, she knows what she's doing. Perhaps it has something to do with her magic, which doesn't serve as a vehicle for light, whimsical musical numbers; it's harsher and more direct, the kind that could conceivably subdue unruly children were it real. Under her rules, it seems plausible that a child can actually learn his or her lesson, and indeed, all the children in this film are challenged in ways that many family films wouldn't care to consider. But it's not all strict policies and firm magical consequences - with each lesson the children learn, she gets progressively less ugly, and by the end, she looks like the Emma Thompson we know and love.

"Nanny McPhee Returns," the sequel to the oddly charming 2005 film adapted from Christianna Brand's "Nurse Matilda" books, is not an equal to its predecessor; it surpasses it on just about every level, from setting to characterization to dialogue to theme, making for a film that's fun, thoughtful, and every so slightly creepy. It's not creepy in traditional, obvious ways, like you would expect from a brooding horror movie. It is, however, heightened to a state of strange otherworldliness, a place where audiences - children included - can actually see the humor in a pair of hitwomen threatening to remove a man's kidney's before deciding he should be stuffed like a dead bird. It's also a place where we feel genuine tension from the sight of children disarming a bomb that's only seconds away from detonating. In a normal universe, all this would be astoundingly inappropriate. Here, it's just right.

The plot, which shifts the setting from the nineteenth century to the days of World War II, has Nanny McPhee (Thompson) entering the lives of the Green family, who manage a farm in the British countryside. The mother, Isabel (Maggie Gyllenhaal), is at her wits end. Her three children - Norman (Asa Butterfield), Megsie (Lil Woods), and Vincent (Oscar Steer) - are constantly fighting. Her husband is off fighting in the war. Her financial situation is steadily declining. She's continuously harassed by her good-for-nothing brother-in-law, Phil (Rhys Ifans), who has secretly gambled away the farm and is desperately trying to get her to sign away her half of the ownership. She tries to make ends meet by managing a village shop, but her associate, Mrs. Docherty (Maggie Smith), is just this side of loony, making it next to impossible to keep the shop in order. Worst of all, her children's rich, spoiled, snotty cousins - Cyril (Eros Vlahos) and Celia (Rosie Taylor-Ritson) - have been sent to stay on the farm.

Nanny McPhee, with her trusty cane, can make magic happen with a bang on the floor, although not in conventional, innocent ways. To make the children stop fighting, for example, she forces them to hit, pull, and kick themselves individually, and she makes it clear that she will put an end to it only on the condition that they apologize to one another. They better hurry; more of the room is being destroyed, and letters from the Greens' father are liable to get thrown into the fire. Later on, when all five children have to work together to find a litter of prize piglets, Nanny McPhee intentionally makes it harder for them by having the pigs do what they normally cannot do, such as climb trees, jump long distances, and have them partake in a surprisingly entertaining display of synchronized swimming.

With the notable exception of Uncle Phil, that rotten excuse of a man, every character develops in harmony with the story, which is to say we learn more about them as the film progresses. As a result, no one is a one-dimensional caricature. Cyril and Celia, for example, may have lived a privileged life, but that doesn't mean they're immune to emotional turmoil, mostly the result of parents who are more interested in themselves. If they act like brats, it's only because they know no other way to receive attention. Likewise, the Green children would like nothing more than for their father to come home; they're angry that he had to leave them and their mother alone, and since they're fairly isolated from the rest of the world, they have no one to take it out on except each other. Not a single child in this movie is bad. They merely have no healthy outlet for their pent up feelings.

Hanging over the whole situation is the threat of enemy bombing, unlikely though it may be. Thompson, who also wrote the screenplay, somehow manages to take this unfortunate reality and lighten it up, not to the point of ridiculousness, but just enough for it to be engaging to a younger audience. I don't know how she managed that delicate balance between childish whimsy, maturity, and morbidity, but somehow or another, she did it. I was also impressed by her portrayal of Nanny McPhee, a no-nonsense but caring witch whose magic can make the best of any situation, no matter how desperate it may seem. "Nanny McPhee Returns" is a pure delight from beginning to end - charming, funny, touching, and intelligent, one of the best family films I've seen all year.

I have no idea if today's children would like this movie. I just know I adored Nanny McPhee Returns. I'm in my 60s. This movie was so heart warming, I'll admit I shed a few tears. Reminded me of the great Disney movie Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Just an adorable little film. Why don't they make more movies like they did in the fifties? Surely not every film has to be made for teenagers?

How pleasant to see a movie without sex or violence. The movie is for kids, but can be enjoyed by adults. There are too few movies these days that do not contain bad language, sexual overtones or just plain violent action. They may sell well, but I prefer this type of movie that is clean fun.

The message for kids is usually something about being resposible.

I will purchase it for my own. It is a great show for grandkids as well.

This is as good, if not better then the first Nanny McPhee. We really enjoyed the movie ( the whole family - Mom & Dad, Children, Grand Children, and Great Grand Children ) all at the same time. Nice to see movies like this come out.
Robert Wenger Sr.

This time Nanny McPhee has to come to the aid of an English farm family whose husband and father has gone off to fight in WW II. The movie starts with a lot of action and never lets up. The family's desperate financial situation is further complicated by the arrival of two spoiled rich cousins from London.

The plot, dialogue, and humor are all aimed at the younger crowd so adults should be warned in advance to expect something for the children. Having said that, the children should be pleased and excited by the progress of the movie and even the adults may be satisfied with the way the movie ends.

This movie delves more into the fantasy elements and demonstrates what miraculous things Nanny McPhee can do; most of these will delight the children even though they don't advance the story.

If you have younger children at home, this movie may find an enthusiastic audience; adults will probably not find it as interesting. I gave it five stars for its likely appeal to young children.

Emma does it again! We loved the first McPhee film, but this one is our favorite of the two. We hope Ms. Thompson will consider bringing us another chapter in the life of Nanny McPhee, soon. (Amazon, as always, delivered the purchase on time and in perfect condition. Thank you!)

I loved the first movie and love Emma Thompson, so I was anxious to see this sequel and was not disappointed, nor were my children. The story takes place with a different family, but pulls aspects from the first family into this film. The lessons learned are the moral ethical lessons we all need to be reminded of. Courage, bravery, loyalty, sharing, forgiving, humor and humility are all there. There is a menagerie of animals and antics along with the most colorful of characters that will leave you delighted and tearful - I cried twice. My "8" and "10" year old loved this movie, so this is one we will purchase. Enjoy!

Emma Thompson is an artist of s many gifts that she defies categorization. In addition to being one of our best actresses of the day, she is also a very fine writer and not at all afraid of jumping into 'family movies' that bundle fun as well as sage advice. Her she has written and stars in NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS and lets hope this isn't her last visit.

Nanny McPhee appears as a grotesquely ugly woman who arrives in households besotted with potential disasters and in the course of her manipulations of the microcosm that initiated the problems she has a sense of magic in reversing the behavior patterns of children and adults to bring about a happy ending to a crisis waiting to happen. This trip finds her visiting the farm of Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) whose husband (Ewan McGregor) is off at war, leaving the care of the three children and the farm and life in general in her hands. Add to that the constant interference of Isabel's pestering brother-in-law (Rhys Ifans) and a battery of spoiled cousins and the madness of a misplaced bomb form the sky and Nanny has her hands full teaching the children not only how to cope but also how to behave in a manner that aids Isabel's survival. Maggie Smith joins this irrepressible cast and in the end it is difficult to judge what entertains most - the madness or the glee. Deep it is not, but it is one of those films you can slip into the telly and enjoy as much as an adult as the youngsters adore it. Fantasy, a bit of family drama, and a lot of fine lessons make this a fluffy movie nearly everyone can enjoy. Grady Harp, June 11