Nanny McPhee Returns

Nanny McPhee was such a great success the first time around but I found the second one lacking. In Nanny McPhee Returns, Nanny McPhee comes to the aid of a woman with three children and two visiting cousins. Her husband is off fighting the war and her brother-in-law is trying to sell the family farm out from under them. The unruly children have to learn how to cooperate and understand one another and their respective circumstances. 

What was so great about the first one was the children. The adult characters were more in supportive roles. For Nanny McPhee Returns the children lose the focus and the amount of big British names, even in cameo appearances pull the attention away from the children. Even Asa Butterfield can't hold onto the spotlight because the rest of the children are unnoteworthy. When you have Maggie Gyllenhaal (American), Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Daniel Mays and Bill Bailey parading across the screen it makes the ridiculousness of Nanny McPhee too ridiculous. The adult characters are not ridiculous like they were in the first one so the magic feels out of place and overdone. 

The sequel lost its charm. The five lessons the children need to learn are learned too fast and the audience is left wondering if the lesson was actually learned. Unlike the first one there isn't a real push from the children to get rid of Nanny McPhee which I think is the problem. The children just accept her and go about their business. 

Also the film tries to tackle some big issues of the war - children's relationships with their parents, divorce and its effect on children and the real possibility that not everyone comes back from the war but these issues are just thrown in and not taken full advantage of in the plotting of the film. The few moments that were in the film were done well but I would have liked to have seen more of those. 

The film did make me cry though. Once when they get the forged telegram about the husband being killed in action and the revelation of the Maggie Smith's character at the end. The ending made up for the rest of the film by tying the first film to the second. As it turns out, Maggie Smith plays a grown up Aggy Brown and still has the baby rattle. It was a shinning moment in an otherwise lackluster film.