Just a spoonful of CGI… - ‘Nanny McPhee Returns’ Review

Strangely enough, I was constantly reminded of Talladega Nights while I was watching Nanny McPhee 2, mostly because of the abundance of bratty kids. Juvenile obnoxiousness is really the only reason that the supernatural nanny exists, just like it's the only reason that Ricky Bobby's kids existed in Talladega Nights.

Except while I was watching those kids viciously berate their elderly grandfather in that movie, I almost couldn't sit still from my desperate desire to see them whipped with a tree branch like they deserved, not praised by their idiot father in a sad attempt at comedy. Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson), thankfully, realizes that snotty kids are neither amusing nor charming, and she makes it her mission to eradicate it from the world.

The movie takes us back to England, the nation that has now turned to McPhee movies into big box office hits, and tells the story of some country cousins spending time with their snooty London counterparts. The Green children, living on the family pig farm, are perplexed at their London cousins' astonishment at the sheer magnitude of pig excrement to be found on the farm, and the inability to get along soon requires the magical Nanny to swoop in out of nowhere at a moment of pure kiddie chaos - and looking ugly enough to be scary - to set things in order. Lots of special effects and hilarity ensue, although the ratio of the two depends on the age of the viewer.

The movie is decidedly more realistic than the original was, in a way, although there are flying motorcycles and pigs that run up trees and do synchronized swimming (and yes, pigs fly) and lots of other magical mayhem. I read about most of this stuff before watching the movie and wasn't too excited - special effects like this are almost never any fun for me - but for a movie full of magic, it's much more realistic than the first movie. At the very least, it now takes place in World War II England, rather than the purely storybook setting of the first film.

Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Mrs. Green, the mother of the three children on the farm who's getting weary of taking care of the farm and the kids while her husband (Ewan MacGregor) is off at war. She has a brother-in-law (Rhys Ifans) who has some gambling debts and is eyeing the farm as a way to pay them off. Not a bad character, although he's a little too selfish for the tone of the rest of the movie, but luckily it doesn't slow down enough for us to dwell on such things, except for one lengthy scene (and the movie's best), where Ralph Fiennes shows up, the stuffy Lord Gray from the War Office, and tries to tell his son that he loves him. It's a totally different scene from the rest of the movie, and probably the one you'll remember the most.

The movie will be entertaining for audiences of all ages, particularly those of us spending a little time with the family at the end of the summer, although it's clearly geared mostly for the younger members of the audience, which of course makes perfect sense. The Twilight and Harry Potter movies have monopolized a significant portion of the teenage audience, which is making it difficult for a new franchise - if the McPhee's become such a thing - to secure a dedicated new fan base.

But the movies so far seem to know where their future is, and are giving them what they want. Still, I found it much more entertaining than I expected, despite an almost depressing number of poop jokes and an overall tone that seems a little more unruly than the good nanny would have tolerated. Sometimes it feels like the movie isn't quite sure how goofy or serious it should be, but I do appreciate that the children are this time endowed with a little more character depth than are generally allowed to kids in the movies. Also, the photography is stunningly beautiful, which is always a good thing, particularly when the setting itself is a tangible character on its own.

Emma Thompson, who came up with the whole idea of the show, is now talking about making a third movie. It feels like the McPhee's are still getting their bearings, but I won't be disappointed to see what the good nanny comes up with next. 

The Bean Meter