Providing some of the most entertaining 90 minutes you'll spend this spring, Nanny McPhee, even 16 years on, is proof that children's entertainment need not be an oxymoron, or something parents should avoid like the plague.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 22, 2021

A recipient of the Truly Moving Picture Award from the Heartland Film Festival.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 17, 2020

Nanny McPhee is neither pretty nor perky. She doesn't sing, dance, or sweep the children off to fantasyland. Thompson has said that there is a kind of zen quality to her, and that seems about right.

| Feb 28, 2020

As Nanny McPhee's hideousness melts slowly away, the film packs a sweet punch, but there is still a spoonful of medicine in amongst the concoctions of clotted cream and acid-coloured icing.

| Aug 24, 2017

It's more of a kids' film than a grown-up's movie, with a good message at its heart.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 1, 2012

The kind of movie that I would have loved to seen as a kid. Magical stuff. I look forward to the sequel. Paul Chambers, CNN.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 30, 2010

Nanny McPhee really works ... despite all of its common plots and ideas, because it stays true to storybook conventions that have never and will never get old.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 17, 2007

An exquisitely designed fable that will delight adults as well as their offspring through its beguiling innocence and hushed, low-key charm.

| Mar 1, 2007

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 5, 2007

Nanny McPhee falls back on the Nickelodeon principle "If all else fails, hit 'em with a retina-searing overload of visual and aural information."

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Nov 27, 2006

There are many different kinds of children's movies, and this one tries to be all of them at once -- including one of those in which the children are smarter than the adults.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 27, 2006

Often as garish and shrill as it is magical and enchanting.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 17, 2006

...Pleasing but ultimately unsatisfying.

| Jun 24, 2006

Frays in the second half… Fancy Darcy as a limp romantic lead!

| Original Score: C+ | Jun 7, 2006

Its redeeming virtues are Thompson, Firth and Kelly Macdonald as Firth's adoring housemaid; they manage to give genuine, affecting performances in the midst of all the outlandish, obnoxious goings-on.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 12, 2006

Mary Poppins as imagined by Lon Chaney.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 3, 2006

Frothy and fun yet deliciously dark...

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

I found myself tearing up right on cue, (Patrick Doyle knows all my buttons) but sincerely, enjoying the magical tale as much as if I were a small child.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 27, 2006

Should play well with the small fry, though adults may be more bothered by the clumsy shifts in tone.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Feb 22, 2006

It relies on a good story and interesting characters a lot more than it does on eye candy.

| Original Score: B | Feb 18, 2006