Emil Foley, giving “Nanny McPhee” a familiar feel for those who’ve kept up with the latest kid-lit screen adaptations. The little monsters – with Simon (future star Thomas Sangster) serving as ringleader – have driven off the previous ones, and so Cedric calls on government nanny McPhee.Thompson plays the title character as a cross between Mary Poppins and Sgt. So does Thompson’s title character, the governess for the unruly children of widowed mortician Cedric Brown (actor Colin Firth). You could argue Nanny McPhee’s cane is a gimmick (although maybe not the most effective one – I’m still not sure what she accomplishes by striking the ground with it, other than shooting out white sparks).As such, it’s able to dispense with the introductions and stage-setting and get down to business. Or maybe it’s even better.It’s self-contained, with no special wizarding vocabulary, no Gothic faux lachrymology, cats adopted by the Christian right or other back story for the uninitiated to catch up to. Yet in spite of that – or maybe because of it – “Nanny McPhee” holds up just as well. “Nanny McPhee” stands just fine on its own without a nursemaid in the form of a big kid-movie franchise behind it.While it has its basis in star Emma Thompson’s adaptation of Christianna Brand’s Nurse Matilda books, “Nanny McPhee” lacks the marketing impact of, say, the new installment in the Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket cycle.
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