NANNY McPHEE RETURNS (Susanna White). 108 minutes. Opens Friday (August 20). For venues, trailers and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
You don’t need to have seen the first Nanny McPhee movie to understand this one. It’s essentially the same thing all over again, with brighter digital effects and a set of new charges for Emma Thompson’s magical governess to set straight.
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Once again scripted by Thompson, who also serves as executive producer, Nanny McPhee Returns – released in the UK earlier this year as Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang – features, well, the return of Nanny McPhee. No more, no less.
In the first film, set in a candy-coloured Victorian England, she helped Colin Firth’s single dad master his unruly brood and find new love. The sequel plops Nanny down during the Second World War on Isabel’s (Maggie Gyllenhaal) rundown farm. Isabel’s husband is off at war, leaving her to struggle with her failing barley harvest, her three unruly children and her terrible English accent.
When two snooty cousins arrive from London, things get further out of hand – and who should arrive to set them straight with magical life lessons but Nanny McPhee? All five kids learn to work together, respect one another and appreciate the delights of digitally enhanced farm animals.
Thompson clearly approaches these movies as a chance to goof around under heavy makeup. As in the first movie, her character is introduced as a warty, potato-nosed, snaggletoothed hag who loses those features as the children learn to appreciate her. She also finds excuses to sneak odd little witticisms into the dialogue, like a casual threat to steal someone’s kidneys.
Small children will enjoy the parade of CG critters, including the most adorable baby elephant since Dumbo, and their parents can be amused by the parade of famous faces.
Maggie Smith and a Harry Potter co-star who shall not be named turn up in cameos, Bill Bailey appears as a chipper farmer, and Rhys Ifans makes a play for Tim Curry’s fussy villain career as Isabel’s duplicitous brother-in-law.
It may be disposable entertainment, but it’s still entertaining.
normw@nowtoronto.com
