Dir. Kirk Jones, 2005, UK, 97 mins
Cast: Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald
Whatever happened to Emma Thompson? At one point, she seemed the all-conquering heroine of British cinema, moving effortlessly from comedy - The Tall Guy and her long-forgotten TV series Thompson - to period costume drama and her Oscar for Howard’s End. She and Kenneth Brannagh were the golden couple of Brit drama and, as Thompson rolled towards her double triumph as screenwriter and lead actress in Sense and Sensibility, it seemed they could do no wrong. But British journalists have never felt comfortable with homegrown theatrical talent and those very connections with cosy, respectable, middle-class drama saw her being cruelly dismissed as a “luvvie”, suited only to roles with clipped accents in bonnets. Thompson fought against this image, appearing with Schwarzenegger in Junior, playing the President’s wife in Primary Colors and then taking roles in hard-hitting TV shows like Angels In America and Wit. But these are little-known in the UK and Thompson seems to have been away from our silver screens for some time.
Nanny McPhee is, then, something of a comeback vehicle as she returns to the dual role of screenwriter-star. An adaptation of Christianna Brand’s Nurse Matilda books, the film concerns a mysterious nanny with special powers, brought in to control some typically irksome British child actors. Thompson dons make-up, mousy wig, an unflattering black dress and bizarre false tooth and still manages to work her magic. Without ever softening the image of this sometimes cold and abrasive character, she manages to convince the audience that she deserves the children’s trust and affection.
Similarly, her script – though obviously derivative of both Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music – does not renege on presenting the darker elements of Brand’s books and balances scenes of riotous naughtiness with the loss of the children’s mother. In fact, death is curiously omnipresent throughout the film. Colin Firth’s father figure works at the local mortuary - a key scene between him and his eldest, Simon, takes place over a prostrate corpse. And when not embalming clients, Firth rejects the company of his offspring to talk to the spirit of his dead wife.
This sense of the macabre is complemented by a refreshingly subtle play on the idea of appearances. As Nanny McPhee helps the children overcome their father’s indifference, so her visage changes from that of an old crone to Thompson’s own, more glamorous self, thus implying that awareness of others enables us to see them more positively. Kelly Macdonald’s scullery maid also undergoes a change of clothes and deportment but this is revealed as a mask for her true character. And the wicked stepmother-to-be’s gaudy idea of marriage attire is pointedly contrasted with Nanny McPhee’s more pure, snowy-white ideal. None of this is spelled out in the dialogue, so the younger audience is pleasingly left to work it out for themselves.
Sadly, director Kirk Jones’ approach to this artful screenplay is as tasteless as the stepmother’s wedding dress. Taking his cue from modern American children’s fantasies like Cat In The Hat, he drenches the exaggerated production design in bright colour and allows the jaunty musical score to drown out almost every scene. The result is a relentlessly bombastic experience that stifles the more emotional strains of the story. Jones would have been better off crafting a gentler, more traditional family drama rather than this hyperactive cartoon, thus enabling the comic set-pieces to stand out in a narrative that is here all set at the same frantic pitch. Ultimately, one can’t help feeling that the hard work of the head girl has been let down by an incorrigibly naughty schoolboy…
Mike Bartlett
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