Emma Thompson inhabits a league of premier global female film stars including Juliet Binoche, Tilda Swinton, and the foremost among them, Meryl Streep. So how bad could a children?s film written by and starring her be? Surprisingly awful, it turns out. Nanny McPhee is a long series of lame excrement jokes, unimaginative plot devices and by-the-numbers vignettes of bad behavior followed by redemption. Nanny McPhee -the magical Super Nanny and Mary Poppins rip-off ?begins by teaching 5 quarrelling children the first of 5 lessons using physical torture to get them to stop the fisticuffs. At least these scenes broke up the initial first fifteen minutes of uninterrupted references to poop from various sources. After these enhanced interrogation techniques, McPhee uses her magical stick to call into being stupid swimming piglets, flying motorcycles with sidecars and to gain access to the halls of WWII power. The story line defaults back to magical intervention to get the children to behave instead of taking the musical cue from Poppins and using clever psychology and dance numbers. Gyllenhaal is marshmallow as a mother, Thompson doesn?t give herself any good lines and the kids are non-descript with the exception of the unlikely named Eros Vlahos who is fun to watch as snooty Cyril. In short, wait for Thompson to return to a dramatic or classical role where her acting chops are put to good use.
Review of Nanny McPhee Returns
