Movie Review

Nanny McPhee and Mrs. Henderson

A Movie Review By Susan Frome
Two stars, two female characters, two comedies about how they spread their magic to create good things have been playing in theatres near you lately. Comedies have to have something special about them for this reviewer to go to, let alone see. The things special about these movies are the actors. Emma Thompson, also the screenwriter here, is always good to watch and she hasn’t been around much lately, and Dame Judi Dench as Mrs.

Henderson is up for an Academy Award for Best Actress this year. She’s been thus honored before and won, but here she comes again, always welcome at the Hollywood event.

Ms. Thompson is Nanny McPhee, a distant relative of Mary Poppins, but very distant in looks and dress. While Poppins was beautiful and lovingly played by Julie Andrews in her neat blue outfit and umbrella, McPhee is subdued and even scary looking with a nose like a ball, warts, and a large buck tooth hanging over her lower lip. Dark clothes and a crooked stick complete the costume. But the face and voice are familiar – we know the intelligent Ms. Thompson is there somewhere.

While the movie “Mary Poppins” was based on the book by P.L. Travers (1934), “Nanny McPhee” is adapted from the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand (1960s). Both are a good deal of fun in their own ways.

At the outset, Nanny McPhee arrives at the home of Mr. Brown (Colin Firth), a father (and widower) of seven naughty children who have literally taken over the household.  Seventeen nannies have come and gone (in a hurry) and the cook, Mrs. Blatherwick (Imelda Staunton), is holed up in the kitchen, waving a document that says, “The children are not allowed in the kitchen!”  She thinks she’s safe. The last trick they’ve pulled, is to hide the littlest one, a baby, in one of her roasting pans, which they have taken up to the nursery. They claim they have eaten the little one. (Not that they would, of course.)

At any rate, McPhee shows up at the front door in the nick of time and proceeds to do her “magic.” Somehow, she gets them upstairs and into their seven little beds in what looks like the attic, and begins to lecture them on her plans for them. If there is trouble, she raps three times loudly on the floor with her craggy cane, and things happen, like magically confining them so they can’t get out of the beds. And so on and on it goes, until they begin to learn the lessons she has brought.

At the same time, a weak love affair is going on between Mr. Brown’s shy scullery maid, Evangeline (Kelly Macdonald). In fact, McPhee “arranges” for Evangeline to be sent away leave and change into a lady before she can come back to – finally – and marry Mr. Brown. Of course there is much in between in order for that to happen.

The pleasure here is to watch Ms. Thompson, Mr. Firth, and Ms. Staunton having great fun with their roles; Mr. Firth is loose and free in this part, different from some other stodgy ones, while Ms. Staunton really lets go as the poor cook who is actually tied up at one point in her own kitchen. And Ms. Thompson is in control the whole time, on top of everything, even as she begins to withdraw from the antics as happiness is restored. We are revived as well.

MRS. HENDERSON
Dame Judi Dench is always dependable and worth viewing, but as Mrs. Henderson she mostly marches here and there and rules the roost, even being rude if she can get away with it. Mrs. Henderson is based on the true life story of Laura Henderson, a wealthy widow in the London of the 1930s and the beginning of WWII. Having nothing important to do, she decided to buy the Windmill Theater near Piccadilly Circus, clean it up, fix it up, and finally hire a manager, Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins), to take care of everything else. The plan was to run vaudeville shows 24 hours a day, a new idea at the time.

Of course, the difficult relationship between Mrs. Henderson and Van Damm is a set up for funny dialogue and silly skits, as she tries to run him as well as the theater. Mr. Hoskins is marvelous as the angry manager who must keep his job no matter what she does, but he is especially different due to his three-piece suit costume and good manners, not to mention his work as a well-spoken Englishman.

The story focuses on these two mismatched characters, and also on her idea to save the failing show:  she decides to offer not only vaudeville skits but also classical tableaux of stationary nude young women, covered here and there by ferns or well placed objects. Needless to say, this saves the show. It’s a hit and jobs can be kept during the hard times. There is a tragic turn in the script, but not for long, as lessons are learned especially by Mrs. Henderson.

The story line is thin but the atmosphere and place are good to be in for a while and the pace moves along at a steady clip.  As far as comedies go, these two are worth the tickets.

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