The seven Brown children -
Simon, Tora, Eric, Lily, Christianna, Sebastian and Baby Aggy - may well
be the naughtiest children in the history of the world. Their beleaguered
father, Mr. Brown, has his hands full taking care of his troublesome
offspring by working long days at the local funeral parlour. The
children's mother died only a year ago but M. Brown's imperious Aunt
Adelaide, who supplements his inadequate wages, has threatened to cut off
her allowance to the family unless Mr. Brown remarries within a month.
Debtor's prison awaits him if he doesn't comply, and the fate of the
children would be unimaginable.
Mr. Brown decides not to tell the children but they find out and assume he
doesn't care enough about them to tell them they're about to have a new
stepmother. As a result, their behaviour worsens, and their acts of
outrageous mischief send yet another nanny screaming from the house.
Simon, the oldest boy and the leader of the pack, keeps a chart showing
the amount of time it's taken to drive away each of their 17 nannies along
with the act of mischief that did the trick
Mr. Brown keeps hearing that the nanny he needs is someone named Nanny
McPhee, but he has no idea who she is or how to find her. "There will be
snow in August before this family is straightened out," grouses their
weary cook, Mrs. Blatherwick, to their scullery maid, Evangeline, who
adores the children in spite of their behaviour. What the Brown family
needs is a miracle. What they get is Nanny McPhee.
One night, as the children are wreaking havoc in Mrs. Blatherwick's
definitely-off-limits kitchen, there appears at the front door the
legendary Nanny McPhee – a stern and comically ugly little woman whose
features include a bulbous nose, a single repulsive eyebrow, a pair of
hairy warts, and a particularly unsightly snaggle tooth. Mr. Brown has
doubts about this person he supposedly needs, but finds himself unable to
give satisfactory answers to her questions about his children. "Do they
say 'please' and 'thankyou'?" she asks. "In what context?" is his weak
reply. Nanny McPhee makes her assessment – "Your children need me" – and
finds her way to the kitchen where she encounters for the first time the
dreadful behaviour of the Brown children. The children are somewhat put
off by this creature with the alarming appearance, but they pretend not to
see or hear her and defiantly resolve "to play in the kitchen all night
long."
But one bang of Nanny McPhee's magic stick changes everything. Suddenly
the children's antics are speeded up beyond their control and they realize
they'll have to play in the kitchen all night long, whether they want to
or not, unless they ask Nanny McPhee to let them stop. A battle of wills
takes over between Simon and Nanny McPhee as to whether or not he will say
"please," but when it looks as though he's on the verge of getting "Cook
blown up and Aggy boiled," Simon relents and says the word he never says.
And says it politely.
In an instant, the kitchen is neat as a pin, and neither Cook nor
Evangeline have any memory of the havoc, or the magic, they just
witnessed. But the children remember, and the younger ones worry they may
have met their match.
When Nanny McPhee appears in their bedroom, they give her a series of rude
names instead of their real names to show that she can't scare them. But
Nanny McPhee knows all their names already, and before she leaves the
bedroom she gives them her credo: "When you need me but do not want me, I
must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go." "We will never want you," says Simon, as defiant as ever.
"Then I will
never go," Nanny McPhee replies serenely, and disappears down the stairs.
In the days that follow, the children find that any mischief they make
will be used against them by Nanny McPhee who seems to enjoy giving them a
taste of their own medicine. Meanwhile, a new complication arises for Mr.
Brown when Aunt Adelaide arrives and announces her intention to take one
of his daughters away to live with her. The children overhear the plan and
rebel by dressing up the family's animals in the girls' frilly best
clothes, hoping the short sighted old woman will take an animal with her
instead. But when Aunt Adelaide spies one of the real Brown girls and
grabs her, the other children realise they have no choice but to turn for
help to the woman who has said that she'd be there for them whenever they
need her.
Nanny McPhee answers their appeal and distracts Aunt Adelaide by making
the family's donkey dance. But the reprieve is only momentary, and she
reminds the children that someone must be in Aunt Adelaide's carriage when
she leaves. The Brown girls respond with surprising selflessness, but
Simon saves the day by asking Evangeline, who longs to be an educated
lady, to go with Aunt Adelaide. The switch is made, the girls are safe,
and the children begin to reevaluate this nanny whom they thought was
their enemy. They also notice that something very mysterious is happening;
as they learn Nanny McPhee's lessons, her looks appear to change. The
warts go, the nose gets smaller, the single eyebrow separates into two
normal ones. Has she really changed? Or is it just their attitude towards
her that has changed?
As Mr. Brown's marriage deadline approaches he begrudgingly invites to tea
the dreadful Mrs. Quickly, a woman so eager for his affections that she
flirted with him throughout her third husband's funeral. Simon tries
unsuccessfully to tell his father their concerns about a new stepmother so
Simon turns to Nanny McPhee for help. Though she refuses to help directly,
she agrees not to interfere if the children try to drive Mrs. Quickly
away.
Mrs. Quickly arrives and the pranks commence. A toad in the teapot, worms
in her sandwiches, a tarantula lowered into her silly blonde curls all
backfire and drive her and their father closer together. In the end Mrs.
Quickly leaves in a fury, sure that Mr. Brown has been attempting to
seduce her all afternoon without the benefit of marriage. Left without
hope, Mr. Brown confesses all to the children and tells them that the
family is about to be pulled apart. Nanny McPhee challenges the children
to figure out on their own what to do. The children go to Mrs. Quickly's
house and persuade her to return to Mr. Brown, then persuade their father
to propose to the awful woman. That night, Mr. Brown apologises to his
children for not trusting them and they apologise to him for their bad
behaviour. They are now a happy family once again, if only for the few
days before the wedding. Nanny McPhee reveals to Mr. Brown that he has
learned one of her most important lessons: to listen. And once again, her
looks seem to change.
On the day of the wedding, it seems that the Browns face an impossible
dilemma. Will Mr. Brown really have to marry Mrs. Quickly? Will the
children be able to figure out on their own how to save the day? Nanny
McPhee's magic, in tandem now with the children's own cleverness, brings
about a series of hilarious and emotional surprises, transforming it into
a day of glorious happiness for the family and a sad reminder for her that
when children want her but no longer need her, she has to go. |
