Nanny McPhee (DVD)
The movie is the story of recent widower Mr. Brown (Colin Firth), his gaggle of unruly children (led by a mischievous Thomas Sangster), the iron-willed Aunt Adelaide (Angela Lansbury, chewing up the scenery with relish), the doe-eyed housekeeper who secretly adores the Browns (a priceless Kelly MacDonald) and strange new governess Nanny McPhee (Thompson) whose magic changes all of their lives. Through twist, turn and timely travail, the Brown children learn life is more than what's right in front of them. With Nanny McPhee's guidance and mysteriously magical tough-love, what looks hopeless becomes propitious, darkness fading from their lives and heartfelt everlasting love hiding right in plain sight for all to discover.
Thompson, an Oscar-winner for her screenplay for Sense & Sensibility, has crafted one of the year's best scripts. Smart, witty, intelligent, it assumes that the audience has a brain and isn't at all afraid to use it. For the most part, this fantastical comedy rises above the usual family flick prattle to become something altogether splendid, a warm-hearted adventure I actually made a point of seeing twice more in a theater after it blew me away during a late-December press screening.
Some of it doesn't work. There's a banquet sequence that's all-too similar to a messy food fight found in Steven Spielberg's Hook, while a bit with a CGI donkey is far too asinine. All in all, however, director Jones shows a deliciously macabre wit, while the actors, including the wonderfully well-cast children, all give bouncy, emotion-filled performances perfectly suited to the material's sprightly familial tone.
The DVD release for Nanny McPhee appears to have been assembled with just as much care as the feature film itself. Available in both Widescreen (2.35:1) and Full Screen editions, the disc contains four featurettes, a funny gag reel, the usual assortment of deleted scenes and a new alternate opening that was rightfully left on the cutting room floor. There are also two audio commentaries.
The first features writer-star Thompson and producer Lindsay Doran. While the duo is fun to listen to this is definitely a very prim and proper dialogue between two friends with a distinct affinity for the material. Their talk, while cordial, tends to be very dry filled with long stretches of silence, and while you do learn much about the making of the feature I can't say that necessarily makes it all that interesting to listen to.
"Prim" and "Proper" are definitely not the adjectives I'd use to describe the second commentary. Director Jones attempts to contain his child stars and lead them in a discussion of what it was like to make the movie. However, that attempt devolves into fits of giggles, laughter and the voices of multiple children talking one over the other. This in mind, if you're in the right frame of mind this commentary is actually quite entertaining, these kids apparently so fond of one another it becomes very easy to understand how they became such an appealingly realistic clan inside the movie.
Nanny McPhee is a beguiling, entertaining wonderment that's definitely risen to become one of 2006's most intoxicating surprises. It is the type of family entertainment that used to be the status quo, filled with sights and sounds sure to thrill audiences of any age. Best of all, it not only stands up to multiple viewings, it encourages them, making this DVD release as close to a must-have as any to hit store shelves this year.