If you liked “Nanny McPhee,” you’ll like “Nanny McPhee Returns.” And you don’t even have to be a kid. Like its predecessor, this one is sweet, sentimental and silly with a fairytale story that makes everything magical. Emma Thompson, who again produced and wrote the screenplay, focuses on the life lessons that children must learn: being kind, helpful, and brave. If there’s a problem, it’s the shift from the enchanting silliness of piglets engaged in synchronized swimming to the dark reality of World War II. While Thompson and the children are engaging, Ifans over plays his role as the villain and I can’t for the life of me understand why Maggie Smith agreed to a scene where she sits in a cow pie.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, radiant as Isabel Green, a sweet-natured but frazzled mother of three children whose husband is off at war, is in danger of losing their farm because Isabel’s brother-in-law (Rhys Ifans) has gambling debts. Between managing her job at a local shop, overseen by the absentminded Mrs. Docherty (Smith) and coping with her boisterous children, Isabel needs help, especially when a pair of spoiled young cousins from London arrive. Enter Nanny McPhee (Thompson), ‘small c, big P,’ with her jutting snaggletooth, hairy warts and scraggily unibrow, to help set things right. Children will be delighted that there’s lots of poo is this movie, but they’ll also appreciate the lessons Nanny McPhee teaches. 8/22/10
1 comment:
This was a sweet family movie with a cute message to young people that by doing good one can become beautiful inside and out.
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