Imagine a cross breed between Harry Potter and Mary Poppins. The nanny from hell comes to take care of some horrible brats that can't be controlled by their almost absent father. She uses magic and cunning to make them like her and obey. In the end, everything is OK and everybody is happy.
"How British", I thought while watching this film. I could have imagined a similar movie with soldiers being abused by their officers in the army while trying to maintain their individuality and losing and then agreeing that it's for the best. In this particular movie, the nanny is well intentioned, but she could have been just as well a child eating witch.
No matter how you try to look at it, the father is a weakling, making too many children when he has no way of supporting them, then having to stand the abhorring attitude of his rich aunt just for the money, while being more interested in his newspaper than in his children. The children are clever and mischievous and I am sure that in the book you get to like them, but in the film they just shift from hellbent to little angels in a matter of minutes. The beautiful maid that has an inferiority complex because she is undereducated manages to get over her complex by... education. The aunt is just plain silly and played by an actress that no one ever liked. The cook is just a walking cliché, just like the evil step mother.
In the end you just feel that you have been force fed lessons of morality that you either didn't want or you already knew. And Emma Thompson, such a great actress, is lost in this movie. She plays beautifully, but, alas, this isn't a great movie.
"How British", I thought while watching this film. I could have imagined a similar movie with soldiers being abused by their officers in the army while trying to maintain their individuality and losing and then agreeing that it's for the best. In this particular movie, the nanny is well intentioned, but she could have been just as well a child eating witch.
No matter how you try to look at it, the father is a weakling, making too many children when he has no way of supporting them, then having to stand the abhorring attitude of his rich aunt just for the money, while being more interested in his newspaper than in his children. The children are clever and mischievous and I am sure that in the book you get to like them, but in the film they just shift from hellbent to little angels in a matter of minutes. The beautiful maid that has an inferiority complex because she is undereducated manages to get over her complex by... education. The aunt is just plain silly and played by an actress that no one ever liked. The cook is just a walking cliché, just like the evil step mother.
In the end you just feel that you have been force fed lessons of morality that you either didn't want or you already knew. And Emma Thompson, such a great actress, is lost in this movie. She plays beautifully, but, alas, this isn't a great movie.