Review of Nanny Mcphee
October 25th 2006 01:34
Mary Poppins She Ain’t.
The idea of a magical Nanny arriving to take care of naughty children and incidentally solving the problems facing their family is always going to have some stiff opposition. Anything even approaching it is always going to have the ghost of Mary Poppins standing somewhere in the background, parrot umbrella making snide comments about originality. Interestingly Emma Thompson’s newest film, Nanny Mcphee doesn’t concern itself with this similarity. Instead of trying to be completely different from the Disney classic, it contents itself with telling its own story, independent of history.
Obviously there are similarities. There’s still a mass of unruly children (seven in this case), desperate for parental attention, still concerned but powerless parents, or parent in this case (the bumbling Mr Brown is played by Colin Firth). And into this world comes a Governess with a supernatural edge to teach everyone what they all mean to each other. In the end of course she has taught them all she can and leaves to help other families.
Interestingly, and unlike the timeless MP, the Browns are not a complete family whose only problem is that they don’t pay each other the attention that they should. There is a genuine hole here. The recent ghost of Mrs Brown haunts every aspect of the film, her husband still talking to her empty chair with heart-breaking honesty about every aspect of their lives. It is her death, and the subsequent distancing between the characters that is the centre of the family’s problems. Well… that and the threat of doddering Old Aunt Adelaide (the hysterical Angela Lansbury) that she will cut the family off and send the children to orphanages and workhouses if Mr Brown doesn’t remarry within the month.
The movie is fun, with plenty of practical jokes to impress the littlies and some very accurate comments on the dynamics of loss. The kids are believable (in particular Thomas Sangster (Love Actually) as Simon), and Emma Thompson steals the show as the warty Nanny Mcphee. If anything it suffers from being too preachy, and, particularly at the end too predictable.
7/10
The idea of a magical Nanny arriving to take care of naughty children and incidentally solving the problems facing their family is always going to have some stiff opposition. Anything even approaching it is always going to have the ghost of Mary Poppins standing somewhere in the background, parrot umbrella making snide comments about originality. Interestingly Emma Thompson’s newest film, Nanny Mcphee doesn’t concern itself with this similarity. Instead of trying to be completely different from the Disney classic, it contents itself with telling its own story, independent of history.
Obviously there are similarities. There’s still a mass of unruly children (seven in this case), desperate for parental attention, still concerned but powerless parents, or parent in this case (the bumbling Mr Brown is played by Colin Firth). And into this world comes a Governess with a supernatural edge to teach everyone what they all mean to each other. In the end of course she has taught them all she can and leaves to help other families.
Interestingly, and unlike the timeless MP, the Browns are not a complete family whose only problem is that they don’t pay each other the attention that they should. There is a genuine hole here. The recent ghost of Mrs Brown haunts every aspect of the film, her husband still talking to her empty chair with heart-breaking honesty about every aspect of their lives. It is her death, and the subsequent distancing between the characters that is the centre of the family’s problems. Well… that and the threat of doddering Old Aunt Adelaide (the hysterical Angela Lansbury) that she will cut the family off and send the children to orphanages and workhouses if Mr Brown doesn’t remarry within the month.
The movie is fun, with plenty of practical jokes to impress the littlies and some very accurate comments on the dynamics of loss. The kids are believable (in particular Thomas Sangster (Love Actually) as Simon), and Emma Thompson steals the show as the warty Nanny Mcphee. If anything it suffers from being too preachy, and, particularly at the end too predictable.
7/10
| 36 |
| Vote |
Subscribe to this blog
