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'Nanny McPhee' may not be pretty, but her rapport with kids is effective

By CARL HOOVER
Waco Tribune-Herald

"They've eaten the baby!" shrieks Nanny No. 17 as she flees the Brown household at the beginning of "Nanny McPhee."

It's not true, of course. Baby Agatha is resting comfortably, if soggily, in the turkey roasting pot while her older siblings are munching on turkey legs and breast dressed in the baby's clothes.

Universal Pictures 'Nanny McPhee' 3 out of 4 stars Director: Kirk Jones Starring: Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury, Kelly MacDonald, Thomas Sangster Run time: 98 minutes Release date: Jan. 27, 2006 Rating: PG for mild thematic elements, some rude humor and brief language. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

The baby-eating prank is merely the latest creative tactic in the Brown children's ongoing campaign against any replacement of their dead mother.

As their befuddled undertaker father Cedric (Colin Firth) soon discovers, they've succeeded in making themselves familia non grata at the village's nanny service.

That's when a mysterious voice counsels that the nanny he needs is Nanny McPhee.

She arrives suddenly, magically, as the children are assaulting the kitchen, the territory of Mrs. Blatherwick (Imelda Staunton) and scullery maid Evangeline (Kelly Macdonald), who carries a torch for the widowed Brown and his seven children.

With a polite command menacing in its softness and a stamp of a gnarled walking stick on the tiled floor, McPhee (Emma Thompson, in a delicious performance) starts the first of five lessons that frame her stay – and the fun of "Nanny McPhee" begins.

Adapted by Thompson from Christianna Brand's "Nurse Matilda" children's book series, "Nanny McPhee" plays as a wry combination of "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" with a squirt of lemon juice.

With large facial warts, a bulbous nose and a protruding front tooth, McPhee is hard to look at. But by the second lesson, in which the kids pretend to have measles only to find themselves magically confined to their beds with the real thing – and a truly loathsome medicine to take – the Brown children are learning to listen and behave.

McPhee's influence extends to the feckless father, who reluctantly is seeking a bride to retain the allowance he receives from haughty, controlling Great Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury). Unfortunately, it's the loud, gold-digging widow Selma Quickly (Celia Imrie) he's pursuing.

Only someone as near-sighted as Adelaide can't see the warm and fuzzy ending coming from this point on, with one wedding ending in disaster and another, conveniently, rising in its place as the fifth lesson gets taught.

Simon (Thomas Sangster), the oldest boy, finds himself turning from the ringleader of mischief to playing a crucial part in saving the family while father Cedric recovers part of his backbone.

"Nanny McPhee" loses its edge about midway through, turning more to goofy slapstick and sight gags than edgy, baby-eating humor.

Seven kids seems an arbitrary number, as only three or four get more than cursory screen time and McPhee so readily defangs them that the film deflates slightly.

Still, it's largely sweet fun that should amuse adults and entertain children, complete with a gaudy color scheme (pink and yellow dyed sheep, for instance), a sloppy cake fight and animals wearing clothes.

Lansbury, Imrie and Derek Jacobi, as one of Brown's undertaking assistants, relish chewing the scenery, which they do. Firth and MacDonald play beautiful well and Thompson is excellent as always.

Maybe Nanny McPhee will return in a sequel where a new batch of misbehaving youngsters eat two babies.

If not, parents still have a consolation prize of a movie poster worth nailing on a kid's bedroom door, thanks to its motto: Behave or beware.