Last year, Nanny McPhee Returns arrived in theaters, and while
I’d enjoyed the first film about an eccentric nanny who works wonders in
a household that desperately needs her, my primary reason for wanting
to see the movie was quite silly. I had seen footage of the premiere,
and I spotted Emma Thompson walking with a woolly pig. It was one of the
strangest creatures I had ever seen, and I assumed that it was one of
the stars of the sequel. When I finally got around to renting it this
week, I confess that the pig was what I most looked forward to seeing.
Alas, although it’s hardly customary to bring one’s pets to a movie
premiere, apparently the sheep-pig was merely a personal pet of
Thompson’s. At any rate, it played no role in the movie. How
disappointing…
Although a small part of me kept hoping
throughout the film that the sheep-pig would eventually show up, I
mostly gave up on it early on and resolved to enjoy the movie anyway.
Like the first movie,
it finds Thompson playing Nanny McPhee, a frumpy, intimidating
personage who arrives unwanted and begins to work her magic upon a group
of unruly children and their overwrought guardian. She is the only
character linking the two movies – except for the eccentric Aggie
(Maggie Smith), an elderly shopkeeper. Aggie was just a baby in the
first movie, so that tells you how many years have passed. Instead of
the late 1800s, we’re now in the 1940s, and World War II hangs heavy in
the air.
On an untidy little farm out in the English
countryside, Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is waiting for her husband
to come home from the war. She’s trying to manage the farm without him,
but it isn’t easy, especially since she has three rambunctious children
to contend with. What’s more, her cossetted niece and nephew have just
arrived, and nobody’s very happy about it. Even worse, unbeknownst to
her, Isabel’s brother-in-law Phil (Rhys Ifans) gambled away the farm to
two rather terrifying women who intend to do nasty things to him if he
doesn’t cough it up. As a result, he’ll now do just about anything to
get her to sign away her property. Isabel could really use some help.
The
setting is sometimes picturesque, sometimes grotesque. The surrounding
fields are gorgeous, but the immediate area near the house is a muddy
mess. If it were just mud, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but there
is great reasons to suspect that this sludge is more malodorous in
nature. It’s certainly not a welcome sight for stuffy Cyril (Eros
Vlahos) and spoiled Celia (Rosie Taylor-Riston), and they are not
a welcome sight for their spirited cousins, Norman (Asa Butterfield)
and Megsie (Lil Woods). Of the five children, the most agreeable is
young Vincent (Oscar Steer), whose primary role in the film is to be
utterly adorable. When Nanny McPhee arrives, she tells Isabel that the
children require five lessons. By the end of the third lesson, the
children are no longer at each other’s throats. But can they work
together to keep Isabel from losing the farm?
Like the first
movie, the sequel is a bit over-the-top and silly at times but quite
touching at others. The children hold their own among some of the giants
of British cinema. Thompson looks a bit goofy spending most of the
movie berating the crow who came with her, but she still carries herself
impressively, while an especially wispy-looking Smith is thoroughly
entertaining in each of her appearances. Completing the trio of Harry Potter
alums is Ralph Fiennes, who plays Cyril and Celia’s father, a severe
high-ranking officer who works in London. Meanwhile, Gyllenhaal must
provide the film’s heart, and she quickly wins the viewer’s sympathy.
While
the movie does not include a sheep-pig, several plain old pigs play a
prominent part, and an elephant even shows up at one point. The latter
is, naturally, part and parcel of Nanny McPhee’s magic, which works in
unexpected ways and has far-reaching consequences. While Mary Poppins
will always be my favorite mysteriously magical British nanny, I’m
happy to see Nanny McPhee return to work her enchantment yet again.
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