Nanny Mcphee Movie:Emma Thompson plays the title character once again

A delightful, funny, and family-friendly flick about a hard-nosed nanny who must make use of a magic-spewing walking stick in order to control a brood of unruly kids.

I never saw the original Nanny McPhee — a surprise box-office success in 2006 — so I wasn’t sure what to expect from its sequel. Thankfully, I’m pleased to report that even though Nanny McPhee Returns is a kids’ film through-and-through, I enjoyed it so much that I may just have to find the time to check out its predecessor (a task that shouldn’t be so tough, since it’s currently in redboxes).

Emma Thompson plays the title character once again; Nanny “Small c, big P” McPhee is a rather grotesque-looking governess who’s been straightening out bratty Brits for decades. on her side is the fact that she has magical powers and doesn’t age. Nothing can faze her. The same can’t be said for Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal). She’s trying to raise her three energetic children while her husband (Ewan McGregor) is off fighting World War II. once her spoiled-rotten niece and nephew are sent to stay at her farm after London is deemed too unsafe, another war is set to break out. in other words, the kids are NOT all right — they hate each other, and Isabel is about to tear her hair out.

That’s when McPhee mysteriously appears on the premises. She’s out to teach the constantly quarreling hellions five lessons, and isn’t afraid to play dirty. Don’t expect her to bust out any show tunes or start dancing around with chimney sweeps à la Mary Poppins!

Movies that revolve around kid actors are always a dicey bet — especially when those kids are supposed to play annoying snots. Miraculously, I found the children in Nanny McPhee Returns to be almost pitch-perfect for their roles. they were sweet when they needed to be sweet, maddening when they needed to be maddening, and normal when they needed to be normal. The standouts were the two big-city cousins — Cyril (Eros Vlahos — I can’t recall a funnier kid actor in the past several years) and Celia (Rosie Taylor-Ritson). I hope we see more of them in the future.

There aren’t many surprises here plot-wise — McPhee won’t leave until her assignment is complete, so clearly the children are eventually going to tow the line or else the movie can’t end. Further, while there is a little suspense surrounding mr. Green’s whereabouts after the family learns he’s missing in action from the army, it’s pretty obvious there’s going to be a happy resolution to that mystery as well. I just wish that more time had been spent on Nanny’s lessons and less on an irritating subplot revolving around the up-to-no-good Uncle Phil (Rhys Ifans), who’s constantly pushing Isabel to sell the family farm so that he can get a few scary debt-collectors off of his back. I never thought his character was funny — even though he was clearly meant to be — and I think the movie would’ve been significantly stronger without him. I also could have done without a sequence involving synchronized-swimming piglets, but since I know kids would giggle at that part, I’ll let it slide.