Issue date: 1/31/06 Section: Aggielife

Courtesy of Universal Studios

Nanny McPhee has recently been hailed as the new Mary Poppins. However, the fact that they are both magical nannies sent to the parents of naughty and otherwise impossible children is where the similarities end.

Nanny McPhee may have replaced Poppins' talking umbrellas and singing with a magical cane, warts and a bulbous nose, but she also uses quite different tactics to accomplish her goals. With each stamp of her mysterious cane she uses a mixture of reverse psychology and magical trickery to coerce her charges into learning life's lessons, which, of course, include saying "please" and "thank you," going to bed and getting up when they are told.

The recently widowed Mr. Brown (Colin Firth) and his seven unmanageable children have just been through their 17th nanny when Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) appears on the doorstep. Her arrival marks the opening of a whole new can of worms, which includes the ultimatum that Mr. Brown either find a new mother for his children, or else the family's benefactress, the ostentatious Great Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury), will stop giving them money. This would result in the separation of the family and complete catastrophe.

The plot thickens not only with the attraction between Mr. Brown and his beautiful and kindhearted scullery maid Evangeline (Kelly Macdonald), but also with the entrance of the enthusiastic, frivolous and vile Selma Quickly (Celia Imrie), who would marry Mr. Brown in a heartbeat for Adelaide's money.

Nevertheless, the children eventually learn their lessons, and as their determination to wreak havoc and cause mischief fades away, so, in fact, does Nanny's ugliness and Mr. Brown's ignorance.

For the expectations one might possess when walking into a children's movie, audience members might find themselves completely delighted by the hilarity, cleverness and likeability of the characters.

The reason for this is simple: it is based on a children's book. The original story was written by Christianna Brand in 1946 and featured "Nurse Matilda," has become a bestseller and has been embraced by several generations of children and adults alike.

Emma Thompson's screenplay, however, manages to get across the ideals of the time frame in which the character was created while still making the story (and the ideals) accessible and enjoyable to today's audiences: ideals such as the fact that it is OK to not give children everything they want, and it is not OK to let them run completely wild. Point taken.

In the here and now, when children's movies are either animated or unappealing, Nanny McPhee once again makes going to the movies a family affair. It is a clean, entertaining story that may leave a few questions unanswered, but all in all gives audience members a rare sense of closure.

And the best part of the story? A sequel doesn't seem likely.

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