Nanny McPhee (2005)

Cedric Brown (Colin Firth) is now a widower with seven ill-behaved children who've already chased away 17 nannies. After a mysterious voice tells Cedric to hire Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson), she arrives at the Brown home and teaches the kids to behave properly. But when Great-Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury) tells Cedric he must be married by the end of the month or she'll separate the children, he tries to find women, but the children run them away. The children believe that all step-mothers are evil, but soon realize that they must help their father, or they may never see each other again. Will the kids really find the perfect woman for their father? Will hilarity ensue? Will Nanny McPhee ever get help for those warts?

Trivia: The location of the Brown's family house was just a huge muddy field covered in brambles. The crew had to bring in items and sets to build all of the village, the house, the tracks, the garden and the trees. Emma Thompson said that it took her nine years to write this screenplay, while it took her only five years to write Sense and Sensibility (1995), for which she won an "Oscar". The voice of Mrs Partridge, proprietor of the agency to which Mr Brown repairs for a new nanny ("There's no more nannies! You've 'ad the lot!"), is provided by actress Phyllida Law, Emma Thompson's mother.

This is Impman's reward for guessing my "J" Movie. It is a typical children's movie, but it was well done. You may have been able to predict the plot, but a child would love it. The sets were wonderfully lush in color and texture. The children worked well together. This movie was really about perceptions. The children are perceived as naughty children by all the adults, but they are good children who are rebelling because they perceive that their father doesn't love them anymore after the death of their mother and that he is too preoccupied in finding a new wife. Nanny McPhee herself is perceived as ugly and evil when she first appeared but as the children learn from her and start to behave...Nanny McPhee starts to change, her warts disappear, her eyebrow separates, she even loses a little weight and her hair recedes until she gains a perception of beauty. I knew Emma Thompson was an actress but somehow it never connected in my mind that she was the screenwriter also. I don't know why I didn't connect it. She did a good job. Thanks Impman.