Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang, starring Emma Thompson, is a bit like Mary Poppins with knobs on, making it perfect for adults and children alike
Cynical adults may snigger that Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang sounds like the porn version of this latest British pretender to Harry Potter.
But children and nostalgic grown-ups alike will adore this remarkable and enchanting second outing of writer/exec producer/star Emma Thompson’s magical time-travelling nanny.
She’s Mary Poppins with knobs on, or rather warts – since Nanny McPhee (‘Small c, big P,’ as the safely scary Thompson, pictured, repeatedly delivers with marvellously dry suggestiveness) starts out buck-tooth ugly but gets prettier the nicer her charges become.
In this case it’s a rambunctious brood whose daddy (Ewan McGregor) is missing in action in World War II and whose mummy (ever cool, wish-she-was-your-mate Maggie Gyllenhaal) is struggling to keep her shady estate agent brother-in-law (Rhys Ifans) from selling the farm from under her.
Grown-ups being pushed into cow poo, burping pets and synchronised-swimming piglets will delight the wee ones, while parents will enjoy a discerning cast including Bill Bailey and Maggie Smith.
Tear-jerking but never schmaltzy, as children’s movies go it’s truly supercali-fragilisticexpialidocious.
Metro.uk
