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| Director
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Kirk Jones
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| Starring
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Emma Thompson, Colin Firth,
Angela Lansbury |
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| The plot of
Nanny McPhee |
Governess Nanny McPhee (Thompson) uses magic to
reign in the behavior of seven ne'er-do-well children
in her charge. |
Nanny McPhee
Review
|
Review by Leslie
Felperin:
Working Title's latest
attempt to crack the lucrative family market after the
sputtering "Thunderbirds," "Nanny McPhee"
finds the Brit shingleshingle returning to a cozy comfort
zone with a "Mary Poppins"-like tale of naughty
well-heeled tykes tamed by a magical child-minder. Even
with its clipped English accents, "Nanny"
should prove a lucrative (especially on ancillary) and
exportable property with its name cast led by Emma ThompsonEmma
Thompson and Colin FirthColin Firth, a spoonful of sugary
morality and a kidcentric mindset suitable for female
tots.
Pic opened wide in BlightyBlighty Oct. 21 with a $4.6
million opening weekend, good for second place between
"Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
and "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride." Universal
has pegged U.S. bow for Jan. 27.Film, based loosely
on Christianna Brand's "Nurse Matilda" children's
books of the 1960s, is set in a fantasy version of the
late Victorian period. However, script by Thompson often
feels like a G-rated version of one of Working Title's
contempo, adult-oriented successes, with its single-parent
set up ("About a Boy""About A Boy")
and subplot about a cross-tracks romance ("Love
Actually," "Bridget Jones's Diary""Bridget
Jones's Diary") between lead grown-up Mr. Brown
(WT regular Firth) and scullery maid Evangeline (Kelly
Macdonald). Even the slapstick recalls WT hits like
"Johnny English""Johnny English"
and "Bean..more..
Review By Louise Keller:
After the recently widowed Mr. Brown (Colin Firth) has
seen the back of the 17th nanny, all driven away by
his six mischievous children, the mysterious Nanny McPhee
(Emma Thompson), appears and offers to help. She has
unsettling facial features and magical powers. As Nanny
McPhee takes control, the children begin to notice that
their acts of mischief lead swiftly and magically to
unexpected consequences. Is she a hypnotist? A magician?
A witch? Even Mr. Brown isn't sure, but under Nanny
McPhee's influence, his own life is being turned upside
down as well.There's no spoon of sugar given by this
nanny, but like Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee knows how
to sort out needy children as well as their needy father.
And while she may be an unlikely heroine with a bulbous
nose, facial moles and wildly protruding tooth, her
methods are beyond reproach.A dancing donkey wearing
a purple hat, pastel-dipped baby lambs, worm sandwiches,
toads in teapots and hairy tarantulas creeping into
bouffant hairdos are some of the delights of this very
sweet film, which is filled with mischief and fantasy.
It's colourful, bright and funny, with splendid production
design, and apart from the central characters, everyone
is a larger-than-life caricature..More..
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