Book Review: Nurse Matilda (Nanny McPhee)

The Nanny You Need is . . . Nurse Matilda?

Some of you loyal readers may recall that Dennis and I both reviewed Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Angela Lansbury), a little while back ( Dennis’ review ) ( Bryan’s review ). If you have not seen it, I HIGHLY recommend it. This charming tale of a homely nanny with a magical walking stick is a masterful adaptation of the book it is based on and in my opinion actually improves upon the source material. I consider it a must-see; a real gem that only comes along once in a while. Run out and rent or buy the Nanny McPhee DVD. This is one that I have now added to my collection even though I rarely buy movies anymore.

If you are anything like me, you often find yourself saying, “The movie was good, but the book was so much better.” After seeing the movie in the theater (or should that be theatre in honor of the book’s British origin), my kids and I were so excited to read the book that was the inspiration for the movie, Nurse Matilda. That said, this is one of those rare instances when I will say that the movie was superior to the book.

The copy I read was Nurse Matilda : The Collected Tales, which has all three Nurse Matilda books in one. The first thing you notice in the book are the many “Briticisms.” The most obvious is the use of the word nurse, which is more akin to the American use of the word nanny. In other scenes, the children eat swedes and roly-poly pudding with treacle . . . doesn’t sound very appealing to me, but they seemed to like it. These terms do however tend to create a foreign-feeling, which enhances the atmosphere of the story.

There are other differences between the book and the movie as well. One of the most glaring differences is that in the book, Mrs. Brown is alive. While there is a lopsided trend in children’s movies for portraying single-parent families (Toy Story, Land Before Time, The Iron Giant, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, etc.), in Nanny McPhee, Mrs. Brown’s absence and Mr. Brown’s preoccupation with providing for his large family, explained the rotten behavior of the children. In the book however, both parents are present and seem to be scratching their heads as to why their children are so ill behaved. This made them into complete dunderheads to me (and yes, I do realize that for the era the book is set in, it was common among the wealthy for both parents to be at home and still have a live-in nanny who takes care of them).

Another element that was introduced in the movie was the love interest between the widower Mr. Brown and Miss Evangeline. In the movie, this was a tender love interest that kindled warmth for the story. In the book, while Evangeline is sent off to live with wealthy Aunt Adelaide, she still comes off as just a pinhead and little more.

Also in the book, the Browns have so many kids that they can’t even keep track of them. They even mention in the second book, Nurse Matilda Goes to Town, that the Browns have adopted more children. While this might be funny (or perhaps just irresponsible) it made the children indistinguishable. There are so many kids that there are no distinguishable characters. One of the most heartwarming elements of the movie was to see the growth of the children in general and Simon (Thomas Sangster) in particular. That element was sadly missing from the book.

Along those same lines, in Nurse Matilda, the children never seem to learn any lessons at all. While there is some marginal progression in their lessons, you don’t really feel that they have learned to behave, but just to fear Matilda. In fact, in Nurse Matilda Goes to Town, the children are right back where they started and might even be worse. To me, this completely robbed Nurse Matilda of her power as a teacher and a mentor. All in all, the lessons they “learned” just seamed to become repetitious after a while.

I will say though that I enjoyed the illustrations. The pen and ink drawings added a charming feel to the book, placing it squarely in the time frame it was set.

Despite all of these issues, I didn’t hate the book. My children and I enjoyed reading it together and shared a few laughs as well. Emma Thompson just hit a home run with a screenplay that in my opinion far outshined the book. Overall, Nurse Matilda was enjoyable, and has been an endearing tale for generations of children. I will likely not finish the sequel though, as I was turned off after the first few chapters seeing the children right back where they started.