Nanny McPhee returns

She's back! Emma Thompson in her latest star vehicle, with a motorbike and sidecar to transport Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (in the USA she simply Returns).

Reprising her 2005 writing and starring success, Thompson maintains the basic scenario in which the nanny teaches children five ways in which to behave better. With each lesson achieved, she loses a disfiguring feature and the children lose their need for her.

Based on "Nurse Matilda" books by Christianna Brand, Thompson's tales are simple family fables. The baddies are comic villains (primarily Rhys Ifans this time), the children are middle-class monsters (five this time) and there's a single harassed parent who needs the nanny's stern stick for the children.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is a farmer's wife during WW2. American actresses often visit UK film comedy sets, some gaining good English accents (Zellweger for Bridget Jones), some staying themselves (Roberts). The dialogue suggests that Gyllenhaal mastered the English pronunciation for "darling", so Thompson used the word a lot.

Maggie Smith looks woefully, almost insultingly, wasted as a dizzy old dame, while Ralph Fiennes has a juicy cameo role that created extra set and location costs. Ewan McGregor probably made a day trip to the countryside for his guest appearance as the farming father.

Younger viewers will love the CGI and SFX animal antics, including synchronised piglet swimmers, a putty-addicted blackbird (Mr Edelweiss) and a helpful baby elephant. Older viewers will be happy if their kids are, and Thompson deserves big thanks and profits for that, if nothing else.