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FeedMovie Review: Nanny McPhee Returns
Films opening this week:
Lottery Ticket - Maple Ridge; Market Arcade; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Quaker, Hollywood Regals
Mademoiselle Chambon - Eastern Hills Dipson
Nanny McPhee Returns - Maple Ridge; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Quaker, Hollywood Regals; Flix
Piranha 3D - Maple Ridge; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Quaker, Hollywood Regals
Restrepo - Amherst Dipson
The Switch - McKinley Mall Dipson; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Hollywood Regals; Flix
Vampires Suck - Maple Ridge; Market Arcade; Transit, Elmwood, Galleria, Quaker, Hollywood Regals; Flix; Transit Drive-In
I must say I’m disappointed in Emma Thompson. I could understand her desire to write and star in an adaptation of Nurse Matilda—perhaps a childhood favorite of hers or her children—but her new incarnation of the wart-faced, bucktoothed taskmaster, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (Hollywood changed the title to Nanny McPhee Returns), seems a complete cash grab. I looked past the juvenile humor of the first film, realizing the work was aimed at children, but the amount of poo jokes is astonishing. However, if there is one thing many Americans like, it’s poo and fart jokes—the audience at this screening ate it up.
The story takes place on a farm ready to fold. Mr. Green is off fighting the war, so his wife Isabel is doing her best to make ends meet, and the children are joined by two spoiled, rich cousins.The magical Nanny McPhee has little to do on this adventure, mostly cocking her head smugly as the children rectify their own problems. Granted, they are older here than the previous film, but you’d think McPhee would do more than animate animals and drive the boys to London on her motorcycle.
As the mother, Maggie Gyllenhaal continues to pretend she’s English—couldn’t they have cast a Brit in the role? Young Oscar Steer as Vincent is a great source of comic relief, Lil Woods plays the tomboy big sister Megsie with aplomb, and Rosie Taylor-Ritson’s brat of a cousin Celia is the epitome of what money can do to an impressionable child. The real stars, though, are the boys at the forefront—first enemies and then partners in trust and duty. Asa Butterfield has the same brilliant mix of naïveté and responsibility that made his work in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas so memorable, and Eros Vlahos steals every scene as cousin Cyril.
The eccentrics entertain on the outskirts. Rhys Ifans does his usual physical comedy as the brother-in-law looking to sell the farm; Maggie Smith is fantastic as the senile old co-worker of Mrs. Green with a secret of her own; and Bill Bailey uses his elastic face to great effect as Farmer Macreadie, a man who is keenly aware of just how clever pigs can be. Look for Ewan McGregor and Ralph Fiennes in small roles as the story turns from lessons in manners to pure and simple survival—a unexpectedly serious tonal shift.
The first Nanny McPhee provided lively enchantment, infused with a healthy dose of reality. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for its sequel.
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang [Nanny McPhee Returns] 4/10
(Nanny McPhee 6/10)
photography:
[1] In "Nanny McPhee Returns", Oscar®-winning actress and screenwriter EMMA THOMPSON returns to the role of the magical nanny who appears when she's needed the most and wanted the least in the next chapter of the hilarious and heartwarming fable that has enchanted children around the world. Photo Credit: Universal Pictures Copyright: © 2010 Universal Pictures. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
[2] (L to R) Megsie (LIL WOODS), Norman (ASA BUTTERFIELD), Vincent (OSCAR STEER), Cyril (EROS VLAHOS) and Celia (ROSIE TAYLOR-RITSON) fight it out in the next chapter of the hilarious and heartwarming fable that has enchanted children around the world--"Nanny McPhee Returns". Photo Credit: Liam Daniel Copyright: © 2010 Universal Pictures. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
