I saw the trailer for this sequel to the kids film based on the children's stories, and to me it looked like it was going to be lame, but then I saw the critics rating ti quite high, so I watched it. Basically young Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) lives on her family farm with her three troublesome children, Norman (Asa Butterfield), Megsie (Lil Woods) and Vincent (Oscar Steer), and she also runs a village shop with Mrs. Docherty (Dame Maggie Smith). Sent from London to live on the farm, I guess because of the war, are the children's spoilt cousins, the Grays, Cyril (Eros Vlahos) and Celia (Rosie Taylor-Ritson), and the misbehaving only gets worse for Isabel. So in comes Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) to teach the children the valuable lessons to behaving well and learning to get on with each other. The first lesson is to stop fighting each other, which she does by making them all hit themselves against their will, and this makes a wart disappear. The next lesson is to share with each other, i.e. beds, and she makes them sleep next to the animals they name they would rather be sharing with, including a pig and a baby elephant, and this makes her other wart disappear. While learning these lesson, the mean Phil Green (Rhys Ifans) is trying to buy the farm off Isabel, since her husband Rory (Ewan McGregor) has been fighting in the war so long, but she won't give in. The children's third lesson appears when Nanny McPhee makes all the pigs go wild and try escape, and they must learn to work together to catch and sell them to Farmer Macreadie (Bill Bailey), they do and her unibrow disappears. Going on a picnic, Isabel receives the news that Rory has been killed in action, which Norman does not believe, so Nanny McPhee takes him and Vincent to the war office to confirm this, while Isabel is tempted to sell the farm to Phil. Norman confirms from Vincent's father, Lord Gray (Ralph Fiennes), that his father is only missing in action and the letter was forged by Phil, who gets handcuffed to a rail in the house. A big problem pops up when a bomb is dropped from the sky, due to a pilot sneezing on the trigger, and the children work together to defuse it, another lesson learnt and Nanny McPhee's hair goes from grey to brown. In the end, the final lesson of having faith is learnt when Rory comes home alive and well, and Nanny McPhee with her smaller nose walks away as they want her but no longer need her. Also starring Sinead Matthews as Miss Topsey, Katy Brand as Miss Turvey, Nonso Anozie as Sergeant Jeffreys, 'Allo 'Allo's Sam Kelly as Mr. Docherty and Plus One's Daniel Mays as Blenkinsop. Once again Thompson does well as the magical almost anti Mary Poppins, and Gyllenhaal sports a pretty good English accent, there was a tiny part thinking it is almost the same film again, but it is a much more interesting film and the kids will love it, a worthwhile period fantasy adventure. Good!
Review of Nanny McPhee Returns
