Nanny McPhee

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—Overview
—Cast and Crew
—Photo Pages

I saw Emma Thompson transformed from ugly to beautiful. That’s the story. The end.

Seriously, that is more or less a summation. Seven beastly children are transformed into seven darling lovable children. One father, Colin Firth (who couldn’t be ugly), is transformed from an ugly beautiful person to a beautiful beautiful person. Everyone in this story is transformed by each other, and the entire world is transformed by Nanny McPhee. The only one who is immune to all of this transforming is Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury).

One of the great themes in this fairy tale is Love. Nanny McPhee is a romantic story of love that cannot be. Yet it is able to be. It is about love that should be, but isn’t, but then is again.

Colin Firth plays Mr. Brown, the widower dad of seven obnoxiously rude and devious children. He loves them but not properly. He is preoccupied with the recent death of his wife and the 30-day deadline he’s been given by his benefactor, Aunt Adelaide, before which he must re-marry or lose his allowance. Should he fail to meet this deadline, he would lose not only the large manor house he and his children live in, but his family likely would be split up. He has no prospects and in desperation settles for less than nothing, a widow whom he met through his work as an undertaker. Her Negativeness is: Mrs. Quickly, Celia Imrie.

Unbeknownst to him, Mr. Brown is secretly loved by his scullery maid Evangeline (Kelly MacDonald). She is learning to read by reading fairy tales about stepmothers—the kind who are always foul and hateful toward their newly-acquired kids. Despite these dire precedents she wants to be the stepmother to these kids.

The children are the way they are because they’ve been neglected. Father no longer reads to them. They have no one to spoil them properly when they are sick, so they feign sickness to get the sweets they want all the time. The rest of their waking hours are consumed with plotting the next near-death experience for some unwary nanny, farm animal or adult. They are troublesome and mean. They are especially mean to all the wrong people.

Enter Nanny McPhee. Nanny McPhee is the 18th straight governess that the Brown children have had. She is the one that they need. She is magic. Not exactly a witch, or at least not a wicked one, but a god-like being who knows all and can change things to her image. Affairs of the heart are off-limits. (Synonymous with free will.) Her mantra is “When you need me and don’t want me, I will be here. When you want me, but don’t need me, I must go.� It’s a clever way of giving you the theme of the movie and the ending all at the same time.

Nanny McPhee is the personification of what badly-behaved children should look like. She represents the ugliness of life that occurs when we are narcissistically consumed, when we allow our grief to overtake us, or when we ignore others around us. As the story progresses, Nanny’s ugliness fades and her true beauty is revealed. The changes to Nanny are prompted by the changes in the children and the others in the household.

Nanny comes with the intention of teaching five lessons. “I have five lessons to teach; what the children learn is entirely up to them.� The five lessons are simply, and allegorically: 1) to go to bed when they’re told; 2) to get up when they’re told; 3) to get dressed when they’re told; 4) to listen; and 5) to do what they’re told. These lessons have different layers of meaning and can be tumbled around to mean a different lesson for everyone. But you’ll get the idea how the lessons can be applied.

The use of color is striking. The house and surrounding park is idyllic—the strong colors used are such a striking contrast that the entire film appears almost cartoonish. This is no doubt intentional as we are dealing with magic and fantasy. It’s a good story. The acting is great. The pace of the movie is slow but interesting. The children are bright and learn their lessons well. The adults and children alike become better people. Their lives are cleansed of those who are nasty. Nanny McPhee allows the formerly destructive and belligerent but still ingeniously impish kids to use their energies to be mean to all the right people.

I like children’s stories. So often they use magical and whimsical methods of eliminating unfortunate events. Imaginative solutions to overwhelming problems are the stuff of enduring children’s stories. Visually Nanny McPhee is a joy. The entire story is filmed in such a way that you know everything will turn out all right. Not much tension, but lots of enjoyable scenes.

Ms. Thompson has written a beautiful, colorful, childishly innocent yet inspiring film.

Continue:
—Overview
—Cast and Crew
—Photo Pages