Nanny McPhee (***1/4)

Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay for this odd little gem about an odd-looking nanny (Thompson) who magically teaches five lessons to seven unruly children.

Emma Thompson, whose previously screenplays include Wit and Sense & Sensibility, brings a similar degree of literacy to this effort pitched at a younger audience. As well as adapting a trilogy of books by Christianna Brand, she plays the title role, though you might not realize it to look at the grotesque makeup effects applied to her. Colin Firth is the other star. A kind widower raising seven kids alone, he’s proven inadequate to the task. We might now call him overly permissive, but this is back in England, a somewhat art-directed England like the one at the beginning of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in a time before Dr. Spock and cosmetic dentistry. The kind widower’s children have driven away 17 consecutive nannies with their appalling behavior. The scenes of hurly-burly that establish this point are not really so different from the ones in Yours Mine and Ours and the Cheaper by the Dozen movies (and that’s three remakes I’ve referenced). Yet I found them so much less annoying here. One thing different, besides the setting, is that this odd little gem is told much from the point of view of the young folks, less from that of the exasperated grown-ups. At the same time, it doesn’t seem like a “kids’ movie.” Adult problems with money and family relations (specifically a half-wicked aunt played by Angela Lansbury) intrude. The adults sometimes use words that kids (the ones in the audience, too) won’t likely know. At the same time, they will be able to easily follow and delight in the story of the mysterious nanny who teaches the children five lessons with the help of her magic cane.

IMDb link

posted 9/17/13

Big Momma’s House 2 (**1/2)

Martin Lawrence puts on a fat suit and goes undercover again, this time as caretaker to three rich kids. Nothing brilliant here, but it's no worse than the original Momma and funnier than either recent Martin Lawrence comedies or the sorry batch of last year’s family comedies.

The nice thing about the two Momma movies are that you don’t really see much of their star, Martin Lawrence. If you’re a fan of movies like National Security and Black Knight, you probably want to discount this review. I’m not, but Martin is a pretty good mimic. For this sequel, he once again dons a fat suit to solve a crime undercover. In this case Momma finagles a job as nanny to three children of neglectful parents. Thus the hallmarks of Martin’s usual comic persona, race-baiting and misogyny, are, if not absent, then subdued. Certainly, watching an elderly woman attempt to contain her lust for half-dressed woman is funnier than watching Martin openly leer at them. Calling it subtle would be going much too far. After all, the movie’s centerpiece is an on-the-beach chase scene meant to highlight the realistic rolls of fat enveloping Martin’s legs. Surely, the Academy cannot snub the make-up and effects artists again. Momma 2 has the same setup as The Pacifier, which isn’t a good thing, but there’s less toilet humor, and at least Martin/Momma doesn’t make the kids go through military drills like Vin Diesel (or Dennis Quaid in Yours Mine and Ours). Each of the kids has a problem. The youngest, for example, doesn’t speak and likes to take flying leaps from high places. (This last part garnered some of the louder laughs from the large audience I saw this with.) The oldest is a surly clone of the teenage girl from The Pacifier. Naturally, Momma has fixed the kids, taught the parents a lesson or two, and (spoiler alert!) solved the crime by the time he returns to his own family, whom he’s been lying to. Now if only Momma could straighten Martin out.

IMDb link

posted 9/17/13