Nanny McPhee

Nanny McPhee (2005) – on rental. Back in Perth on weekday evenings there was a TV show called Supernanny. Basically, the reality TV-esque series had professional nanny Jo Frost helping families with misbehaving and out-of-control children get a grip on them. The show’s rather scary in spots as you really did see the worst in children, but in each episode, the supernanny shows how the children can be managed and have them learn from their experiences.

I was vaguely aware of Nanny McPhee, based on a series of children’s books about one such British supernanny, from the fact that Emma Thompson – an actress whose roles in Love Actually and Primary Colors I liked – had chosen not to reprise her role as Sybil Trelawney in the Harry Potter films to be in Nanny McPhee.

The film is set in what looks like Victorian England and sees Cedric Brow (Colin “Mr. Darcy” Firth), the local funeral director of a small English village and also father of seven boisterous children who have all turned hostile to nannies since the passing of their mother. At his wits end after his charges chase off their 17th nanny, a mysterious voice tells him that he needs Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson). She shows up looking like a demented old witch, but through her ways and means corrects the children’s ways who grow to adore her.

Thrown into the mix is a harassed cook who’s an ex-Army Cook – played hilariously by Imelda Staunton who also played to perfection Doleres Umbridge in Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix, Angela Landsbury who looks positively ancient as a terrorizing aunt with a huge prosthetic nose, and Sir Derek Jacobi (long list of acting credentials but haven’t seen many of his films) as a caretaker in Brown’s employ.

There’s also the lovely Scottish actress Kelly MacDonald who plays the scullery maid in Brown’s household and potential love interest. She has more than a passing resemblance to Kate Winslet. And finally, of the seven young children, I recognized only Thomas Sangster from Love Actually. So there’s quite a cast of talent assembled for this film, and coincidentally three actors are from Love Actually even: Thompson, Firth and Sangster.

Unfortunately though, I’ve got mixed feelings of the film after its viewing. Nanny McPhee is certainly very family and kid-friendly with no even remotely-adult situations, and with the sort of scenes that appeal – maybe even only – to a very narrow demographic crowd. You have a wedding in snow, outrageous colors that could have popped out of a Willy Wonka factory, a food fight, and bits of slapstick comedy, including of people falling down the staircase.

But while these scenes will without doubt delight the very young, they were actually cringe inducing for me as an adult viewer, and I’m not a prude. it’s just not very funny watching acting greats like Angela Landsbury get cake thrown into her face, or watching Colin Firth struggling with physical comedy. Of the adult cast, the only person who seemed comfortable with the overtly kiddy and pre-adolescent tones of the film was Staunton, but she gets some of the funniest lines in the film and she has a naturally comedic disposition to begin with.

Moreover, the film’s second act – when the children depend on then adore McPhee – depends on the viewer perceptions getting built from the first – when the children are spoiled brats with McPhee mending their ways. Unfortunately, for so important a story arc the latter is given short drift. In fact, the kids transform so quickly from devils into angels that the transition is jarring.

That said, I think Ling enjoyed the film far more than I did. Rather, at least she asked to rewatch the parts she missed in view of Hannah’s evening feed. For myself though, it’s rated as a barely watchable…