Nanny McPhee DVD > Reviews > I DID KNOCK.

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	A DVD TO AWAKEN THE CHILD IN EVERYONE
Disadvantages:	NONE

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

A DVD to encourage the children in every one.

Now,
I don’t usually do DVDs as I find them really difficult to review,
Usually I only usually see the first part of them then I fall asleep,

I feel this DVD in particular needs far more recognition than it has received as it’s a story of discipline of sorts, administered in a fun and understanding way with magic and mystery all the way.

The cast;

EMMA THOMPSON, nanny mcphee COLIN FIRTH, Mr Brown
ANGELA LANSBURY, auntie Adelaide Casting by, Michelle guish
Music by, Patrick Doyle, Costume designer, Nic Dee
Production designer, Michel Howells based on the book nurse Matilda books by Christiana brand screenplay Emma Thompson and produced by Lindsey Doran, Tim Bevan and Eric fellner, directed by Kirk Jones.

The plot;

It starts with recently widowed Mr Brown(Colin firth of Bridget Jones diary and girl with a pearl earring) having to look after and tame his seven children which are badly behaved to say the least he makes his way down to the agency to recruit yet another nanny and the doors are suddenly locked and he is informed that there are no more nanny’s that are willing to look after his now well known children so he walks away and as he does that the letterbox of the letting agency open and says to him.

“THE PERSON YOU NEED IS NANNY MCPHEE”

To which he replies,
Excellent, I need her to start right away, as I am late for an important tea dance.
The voice in the letterbox said
“She is not on our books she’s not on anybody’s books”
And slammed down the letterbox, Mr Brown walked away.
by this time Mr Brown is getting really tired and slumps over his desk he then reads the newspaper and an advertisement he sees in it is, the person you need is nanny Mcphee ,but all contact details where cut out by the children. He also has an auntie informs Mr Brown that his children are out of control and to live in the same house that he must marry within a month,
not having a lot of luck is he!.
.
Just at that moment a loud knock comes on the door,
Mr brown opens the door to what looks loosely like a lady she has buck teeth straggly hair and 2 very large warts on her face said “good evening Mr brown,
“I am nanny mcphee”
Of which he replied “of course good heavens, I suppose the agency sent you” and she replied “I don’t belong to any agency I am a government nanny may I come in” as he invited her in. “I understand you have extremely badly behaved children” “there not badly behaved there just playful”

Nanny Mcphee replied;
What are your main concerns?
Do they get up when there told?
Do they get dressed when there told?
Do they go to bed when there told?
Do they say please and thank you?
Mr Brown replied to that was, well.
Nanny Mcphee just hummed and shrugged her shoulders.

I shall introduce myself to the children she said.
From that moment on some really strange stuff starts happening but if I describe it to you magic is the only word I could use to describe it.

I am in danger now of revealing the story line altogether, I don’t want to do that as it’s a film you really must see for yourself.

There are things however in the film that are not constantly said but ring true in the back of your mind for instance, what nanny mcphee says at the beginning when the children are being horrible:

There is something you must understand about the way I work!
When you need me but don’t want me then I will stay but when you want me but no longer need me then I must go. And also another saying my favorite is I did knock she may not but who’s going to argue with her.

By this time the children suspect witchcraft and are no party to it, as they are determined to get rid of her as they have done 17 nannies before.

She then goes to Mr Brown and informs him “the children are all in bed and that they need 5 lessons”.

“Lesson 1 is complete to go to bed when told”.
My terms are I have Sunday afternoons off.

She then goes on to teach the children one by one the other 4 lessons and there importance to the grand scheme of things and the consequences that involves.
With each lesson that the children learn nanny Mcphee’s deformities grow less and less.
With every deformity the children get to like her more and more they trust her and they get to be a lot more pleasant towards her. And in the end I think is the best this is because they do as they are told and nanny mcphee can understand how there minds work and then they realize that she is really quite pretty.

Bonus features;

Casting with children;

Kirk Jones; The director tried to avoid theater children as thy can be like cardboard they looked through hundreds of children of tape and had to be whittled down to 100
Celia bangerman; children’s dialog director;
she had to make sure all the children was o.k. with there lines the difficulty was these children had to work as a family so had to be convincing going for days out and being like a family should.

Separate interviews from the children;

The children found doing the film exhausting in not a child friendly environment
Village life a decision was made to make the village from scratch and wanted every single aspect to be a design, once they decided to build the village they had to decide where it had to go.
For instance the script said a small brown house but eventually had 40 tons of steel in its structure.
The designers hopefully want people to think it had always been there and after they had finished it looked like it always had.

Nanny Mcphee make over;

All they did in the film was put in 2 warts a nose the size 2 potatoes buck teeth scraggly hair, eye brows that join together in the middle.

The idea of her being scary;

She has to make an impression as she s scary as we know the children are very naughty she has to convey that strike fear if you like.
It had to be funny but not to distracting.

Peter king; hair and make up designer;
Minimal changes happen when your not noticing the design is cleaver that when wearing is not noticeable each day she losses some weight but you don’t really realize until the end.

The cleaver bit is making it look real which they do with convincing effect.
Children of all ages and adults alike are very aware of the changes with nanny mcphee and her eyebrows warts and her nose what’s interesting though are the different opinions why she is changing.

Some say it’s because the children are learning to behave,
Other say it’s because the children are beginning to see her in a different light.
Buts what’s clear to every one is the children don’t need nanny mcphee anymore,
The process of change is therefore complete and so its time for her to go.

Who knows what real thing nanny mcphee at the beginning or nanny mcphee at the end?
A universal film suitable for all ages does contain mild language and sex references though a family film production year 2005.

.oh and for the hard of hearing there are subtitles available.
I bought my film from choices for £3.99
It is also available at;
Amazon.co.uk. £3.49 or eBay for £4.99