LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

beresfordjd 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.

Jason Daniel Baker 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.

fedor8 The strongest aspect of NM is the visual quality, into which valiant effort must have gone. Well done. However, as determined as the filmmakers must have been in trying to make this predictable kiddie-movie formula film look great, they were even more ambitious in one thing: trying to make Angela Lansbury look worse than she already does.And I'm not just taking cheap shots at her three-digit age (she's like Lauren Bacall: immortal). The point is that she'd always looked hideous. (That's nepotism for ya.) Which begs the obvious conclusion: sticking a large nose onto Lansbury is an utterly unnecessary act of sheer overkill. Futile; sort of like the reverse of trying to make a cockroach look sexy by giving it breast implants.I could be similarly nasty about Emma Thompson. When her warts and the tooth are gone, do we really see much of an improvement? Hardly a face to fall in love with - unless your name is Ken and you make dull Shakespeare adaptations (for lazy O-Level students) for a living. She also wrote the screenplay, based on some kids' books, and that must have been one helluva feat, huh? Even Madonna managed to put a few sentences together when she released her bin-worthy drivel. (Although, to be fair, when it comes to the Immaterial (Kabbalah, remember) Girl I'll just have to give her the non-benefit of a doubt and assume that she hired a ghost writer even for that.)Colin Firth... Well, Firth is his usual self. Has he ever played anyone else - besides himself I mean? Still, the English understatement, combined with the stereotypical lack of confidence, suited the movie well.Some adults were unnecessarily harsh with their comments and ratings with this movie. They consider it to be too predictable and childish. Well, duh: it's a movie for kids, not adults. What did they expect, "The Usual Suspects"?

DAVID SIM Nanny McPhee is a film I wouldn't normally touch with a 4-metre barge pole. The plot of a magical nanny sounds like a steal from Mary Poppins (which it is), and pie fights and dancing donkeys didn't exactly build a strong case for the film. Until I learned it was written by and starred Emma Thompson.Emma Thompson is one of my favourite British actresses. What I love about her is the way she is so untouched by celebrity. She never puts on airs. She is so down to earth and is yet possessed of a sharp, sophisticated wit. In everything I see her in, she never fails to steal the show. You could be seated next to her on a plane, carry on a conversation and enjoy it. And she would enjoy talking to you. (As long as it was about something interesting!).It's always a joy to see her in something, but even more of a joy to see something she's written. Emma Thompson's witty, ironic prose works well on the big screen. She won a well deserved Oscar for Sense and Sensibility, a surprisingly funny account of the opposing classes. But one wishes writing is something she would return to more often. Its something she doesn't do nearly enough of. Nanny McPhee is her first proper screenplay since Sense and Sensibility. Adapted from the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand, and playing the title role, its something she's tailored to her specifications.Nanny McPhee comes to oversee the seven unruly Brown children. Their father Mr Brown (Colin Firth) hasn't been able to keep the family together since they're mother died. They've driven away 17 nannies (like another Julie Andrews vehicle I know), and Mr Brown is at his wits end. That changes when Nanny McPhee arrives. With her bulbous nose, overhanging tooth and warts and all, Nanny McPhee is the type of nanny Rosemary might hire for her baby. Her credo is simple:"When you need me but don't want me, that's when I will stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, that's when I must go."She slowly works her magic over the Brown household. She whips the kids into shape, teaching them lessons about responsibility and common courtesy along the way. She plays matchmaker between Mr Brown and the household's lovely scullery maid, Evangeline (the radiant Kelly Macdonald). But the dastardly Aunt Adelaide (a magnificent Angela Lansbury) has her own plans.Nanny McPhee is not a perfect film. At its most generic level, it is a ripoff of Mary Poppins, (we even get to see the kids flying kites at one point) but a Mary Poppins reworked through Roald Dahl. Nanny McPhee is a film that might have worked better were it released through a British company instead of Universal. This is just a personal opinion, but I feel British films released through American studios tend to lose a lot of their bite. Its a problem that particularly crippled Love Actually.Quite a few actors from Love Actually crop up in Nanny McPhee. Aside from Emma Thompson and Colin Firth, there is the young and immensely talented Thomas Sangster, and Adam Godley in a small role of a vicar. There is a bit of novelty in actors from disparate story lines of Love Actually all sharing the same one this time.Because its released through Universal Studios, it means that there are a lot of special effects in the film. I really hated the dancing donkey. Have I already mentioned that? And some of the sets are so overdesigned they begin to wear on the eyes after a while. But the film's one major asset is the always delightful Emma Thompson.Thompson carries herself with a mystery and arch drollery that keeps you continually involved. Even when the film threatens to get into some sticky areas along the way, Thompson's magical presence is always a hook. Even buried under tons of makeup, her vibrant, bubbly persona shines right through it. One of the film's more unusual touches is the way she sheds some of her ugliness whenever she teaches the kids a new lesson. By the end of the film, she becomes the beauty she's tried to bring out in the people around her.Thompson's clout in the industry has allowed her to share the screen with a really excellent cast. Thankfully, unlike Love Actually, there are no Americans. And none of they're colloquialisms either. Colin Firth is OK, but he doesn't get much to do except feign exasperation. But the rest of the cast is superb. The sweetly appealing Kelly Macdonald is great, two years before her surprisingly convincing performance in the excellent No Country For Old Men. She's a whiz with accents. Going from a working class scullery maid to an upper class, proper lady with utter conviction.We also have Imelda Staunton as the Brown's no-nonsense, military in mind cook Mrs Blatherwick. With her rosy cheeks, chin and forehead, she looks like she's about to die of terminal rosacea. Celia Imrie is hilarious as Mrs Quickly, the strumpet of ample bosoms with an eye on the Brown family fortune. Her facial expressions are as distracting as her cleavage. We also have Derek Jacobi and Patrick Barlow as a couple of prancing dandy's. But its Angela Lansbury who really shines as the perfectly horrid Aunt Adelaide. With her beady eyes, hook nose and clipped elocution, she's the only one in the cast who can keep up with Emma Thompson.Director Kirk Jones sometimes mismanages things, allowing the comedy to topple into slapstick farce. The early scenes with the kids are just noisy. And the wedding climax's cake throwing and imagined bees is just plain silly. The film is at its best when Nanny McPhee is quietly pulling the strings from the shadows. It ends predictably, but the welcome presence of Emma Thompson ensures it passes the time pleasingly enough.