Powerful

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

While I am not sure that I would have cast Colin Firth as the father in this movie, he does an okay job. The rest of the cast are pretty near perfect. The children led by Thomas Brodie- Sangster are just right and manage to be irritating at the beginning without being so obnoxious that the viewer hates them. Imelda Staunton shows what a fine comedy actress she is as does Celia Imrie. Emma Thompson has written a marvellous screenplay and her performance as the title character is just pitch perfect. it would have been so easy to overplay such a quirky character. She is everything that Mary Poppins should have been and was not. This is the sort of film that normally i would run a hundred miles from so I never saw it in the cinema or on DVD. I caught it on TV and both my wife and I loved it. Miss Thompson has crafted an instant children's classic which will be shown over and over and enjoyed by succeeding generations of all ages.

No relation to Nanny Gee, the character Emma Thompson played on Cheers. That character was not so repulsive to look at as this one with her disgusting dental work and warts. This is problem number one: If one cannot even stand to look upon the title character how is one expected to watch the movie? Thompson co-scripted and it co-stars her old chums Imelda Staunton & Derek Jacobi.Nanny McPhee is a mystical character who appears to be set to prove that women really are better at multi-tasking. Her job is to go in to the home of a widower (Firth) and whip his seven brats into line. On that basis it is actually better as an advertisement for family planning.It is a rip-off of Mary Poppins but with a twist. The solid musical numbers and appeal of the central character are lacking compared with Mary Poppins.

NANNY McPHEE is not a perfect film for children or adults, but it does pass the time pleasantly with some gorgeous color photography that has to be seen to be believed. The cinematography is top notch, the Patric Doyle score is full of deft touches, and the cast is impeccable.But the script seems like a rather patchwork sort of thing, uneven but overall has enough interest to keep anyone entertained with this story of a nanny who assigns herself to take care of a widower's seven unruly children in Victorian England. However, it's not up to the standards that Miss Thomposon imposed on her script for SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.Emma Thompson has been uglified with warts and a protruding tooth to make sure we don't regard her as another sugar-coated version of Mary Poppins. It's a role she apparently feels comfortable in despite what her fans may think. But she's written a wonderful role for COLIN FIRTH as the father who has absolutely no control over some noisy children, yet manages to keep a cheerful disposition on the surface. He proves adept at playing impish humor and runs away with most of the acting honors.Angela Lansbury too has been harshly made up sporting an over-sized crooked nose to play the strict Aunt Adelaide and she is strident, foolish and hilarious in the part, obviously not giving a fig what her fans might think of her appearance. Her scenes with Firth are among the most humorous in the film. Derek Jacobi, Imelda Staunton and Kelly Macdonald stand out in vivid supporting roles.The children are believably rowdy, especially the boy Simon played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster, a mischievous combination of good and evil.Technically, the film is a marvel to look at--gorgeous outdoor settings and overstuffed interiors in stunning color, and well paced by director Kirk Jones.

Children might actually like this - yes, cause its full of children and full of baby-jokes... but please don't make your poor kids watch this... I mean honestly: Magical authoritarian force-slapping isn't the way to make a kid turn out good. The overcharged "what a wonderful moment"-music makes things even worse. It gets louder the more unrealistic and ridiculous the movie becomes. And it reaches levels of pointlessness that i didn't even know about. The characters are ink-horn and mostly unbearable.If you believe in hitting your children or if you think it would be wise to tie them onto their beds and feed em oil: Then you might enjoy this movie. Also then you hopefully don't have kids.