https://youtu.be/EEAQWbtjOME

‘SPOILER ALERT’

A man named Cedric Brown is a widower and a father of seven clever but naughty kids: Simon, Tora, Lily, Eric, Sebastian, Chrissy, and Baby Aggie. Cedric loves them all from the bottom of his heart, but since he doesn’t have the time to tend to them, he hires a nanny named Whetstone to do the job.

However, despite having a reputation for being a fearless and tough nanny, Whetstone storms out of Cedric’s house one morning while screaming in horror. She then rushes to the funeral parlor, where Cedric works.

There, she tells him that his unruly children have cooked Baby Aggie alive and eaten her for breakfast. She also decides to quit. This alarms Cedric, who was confident that Whetstone could manage his bratty kids. He immediately leaves his workplace and rushes back to his home, where he finds his kids eating breakfast.

As Cedric asks where Baby Aggie is, he finds her alive and well inside a pot full of vegetables and cabbages. It then turns out that his kids pranked the nanny and drove her crazy to trick her into quitting because, after all, they don’t like a stranger to manage them and tell them what to do.

For this reason, Cedric tells off his children and informs them that Whetstone quit her job. Now, he has to head to the agency to hire a new nanny. After Cedric walks out of the room, the oldest kid, Simon, celebrates with his siblings now that they have a track record of driving 17 nannies out of their home.

Cedric is on his way out when he trips over a toy and falls down the stairs. The housemaid named Evangeline checks on him to see if he’s alright. He tells her he’s going to the agency to find a new nanny. As he leaves, it becomes obvious that Cedric and Evangeline share an unspoken attraction, given the way the two look at each other.

Cedric then heads to the agency and tries talking to the lady running it. However, no nanny in the agency wants to deal with Cedric’s unruly kids anymore. As Cedric begs the lady to hear him out, she shuts the door in his face and tells him to leave. Cedric is just leaving when he hears a mysterious voice from behind the door. It tells Cedric the only person who can help him is Nanny McPhee, who’s not registered in any book.

Since no one can help him, Cedric is frustrated. He returns home and berates his kids, and as Simon and Tora act innocent, Cedric grounds all his children by sending them to bed without dinner. However, Simon, the mastermind behind all this, tells his siblings to never mind the punishment. After all, there are no more nannies to bother them, control them, or tell them what to do.

The kids then get back to making mischief in their room. They’re so noisy that Cedric can’t even focus on writing an apology letter to Mrs. Whetstone. Evangeline feels bad for Cedric and decides to help him. She walks into the kids’ room and silences them all.

As Evangeline talks to them, she understands the children, especially Simon, are upset with their father after their mother died. They complain that their father doesn’t spend enough time with them. They think that all their father cares about is getting remarried, and, of course, a stepmother is a child’s worst enemy during the Victorian Age, as stepmothers are portrayed as evil and abusive in kids’ stories.

Evangeline tries to reason with the kids and assures them that their father loves them, but he simply has a lot on his mind lately. She also assures them that she likes them, despite being a stranger. However, the kids only see her as a maid who’s being paid to just feed and serve them. When she hears this, Evangeline becomes upset and gets back to work.

At night, the family’s chef named Mrs. Blatherwick is resting on the rocking chair when suddenly the kids send a small toy to distract her. This allows Eric to hit her with the pan and knock her out unconscious.

After they tie Mrs. Blatherwick to the table, the kids mess up the kitchen and have all the fun they can have now that no one can stop them. As he learns about what his children are doing, Cedric gets mad. He is about to head to the kitchen when suddenly a mysterious lady knocks on his door.

Seeing the lady, Cedric is taken aback by her big nose, the two big moles on her face, her awkward tooth, and her messy gray hair. The lady introduces herself as Nanny McPhee. She’s a government nanny, and she’s come to handle Cedric’s ill-behaved kids.

Walking into the kitchen where the kids are having fun, McPhee says hello, but they all ignore her. McPhee orders the kids to stop, tidy up the kitchen, put everything away, and go to bed. Still, the kids turn a deaf ear to her orders.

This leaves McPhee no choice but to resort to magic. She bangs her staff on the floor and casts a spell. This spell causes the children to lose control of their behavior, as it speeds up what they are doing to a frantic pace. The kids can’t even stop, and they all get tired. Simon begs McPhee to stop, but McPhee won’t stop until they politely say please.

Simon refuses to say this word because it means giving up, but since Chrissy is about to put Baby Aggie into the boiling pot, Simon gives in and says the magic word: please. McPhee taps her staff on the floor and casts a spell that causes the children to stop. The spell also restores the kitchen back to its neat and original state. McPhee then orders the kids to go to bed.

All the children follow McPhee’s order—no questions asked. However, Simon is not happy about it. He wants to get rid of McPhee. He’s confident that he can pull it off since he successfully got rid of 17 nannies.

As the children are in bed, McPhee walks in to ensure they’re all tucked in. Given that McPhee doesn’t know their names yet, all of the kids mock her and introduce themselves using silly names.

However, McPhee is no ordinary nanny. As she tells each of the kids to sleep well, she calls each of them by their real names. McPhee also clarifies something about how she works. She says that she’ll stick around as long as she is needed but not wanted. When she is wanted but not needed, she will leave, as simple as that. Simon assures her that he and his siblings will never want her. McPhee then replies that she’ll never leave.

McPhee then talks to Cedric. She tells him that all his kids are asleep, which is quite surprising to Cedric. As for her terms, McPhee wants to take Sunday afternoons off. McPhee then states she’s here to teach the kids five valuable lessons, the first of which is to go to bed when they’re told. Luckily, this lesson is complete.

The next day, McPhee tells the children to get up, but none of them does. She gives them half an hour to do so and walks out of the room. Simon then comes up with a theory about how McPhee’s magic works. He thinks she hypnotized them last night, which is why he tells his siblings not to look her in the eye.

Half an hour later, McPhee walks back in, and as she expected, the kids are still in their beds. They all painted their faces with some white powder and added some red dots. They want to make her believe that they are under the weather to stay in bed. They are also careful not to look McPhee in the eye.

However, McPhee knows they’re acting, but she plays along and pretends to be dumb. She taps her staff on the floor and casts a spell that makes the children fall sick for real. Even more, this spell glues the kids to their beds, and it makes them unable to get up, even though they never looked McPhee in the eye, which means Simon’s theory’s debunked.

Shortly after, McPhee returns with a medicine for measles. Once they see how scary the medicine looks, the children insist that they don’t have this disease, and Simon refuses to take it, but McPhee forces the spoon into his mouth, leaving him no choice but to swallow it.

Following this, Evangeline is all by herself, trying to learn how to read. She doesn’t want to remain illiterate and low-class, as most of the maids during this age are. She aspires to educate herself to make sure men won’t see her as ignorant and stupid.

McPhee then goes to see Mrs. Blatherwick in her kitchen. McPhee orders her to prepare a soup from potato peelings and feed it to the kids to punish them for lying. After Mrs. Blatherwick serves them the soup, the kids become convinced that McPhee is starving them.

Meanwhile, Cedric heads to his workplace and shares a laugh with his friends. He then reads a letter he received from the kid’s great aunt named Adelaide. She orders him to remarry and give his children a mother to keep them in line. If he fails to do that, Adelaide will stop covering his rent as she always does, making him homeless and forcing his kids into labor.

This makes Cedric more desperate to get a wife, and the only woman that comes to his mind is an elderly one named Mrs. Quickly who has a crush on him. She’s quite well-known for being a dreadful woman that nobody in the city can even stand to look at her. However, desperate times call for desperate measures, and Cedric has to get a new wife in time.

That night, Cedric walks in with McPhee to check on his sick children and ask if they are feeling any better. Without anyone noticing, McPhee taps her staff on the floor, and, in a heartbeat, all the kids are cured and able to move again.

The kids then ask their dad if they can get up, and more surprisingly, they all say please. This comes as a shock to Cedric. He has never known children to be this polite. Even more, a mole on McPhee’s face disappears. This means that her extreme methods are paying off.

Now that the children have learned how to be polite and say please, McPhee decides to reward them. She asks Evangeline to make them some scrambled eggs and toast for dinner. McPhee then goes to see Cedric at his office. She informs him the kids learned the second valuable lesson of getting up when they’re told. Now, McPhee has three more lessons to teach.

The next day, Cedric receives another letter from Aunt Adelaide. She intends to stop by and say hello, and much to Cedric’s joy, Adelaide says she wants to ease the financial burden on his shoulders. Overjoyed to read this, Cedric starts believing Adelaide won’t pressure him to remarry anymore.

However, the children don’t like their great-aunt, for she is a scary lady. Also, they are not quite pleased when they hear about her upcoming visit, but Cedric orders them to behave just for this occasion and put their best clothes on.

Since McPhee is off-duty on Sunday afternoons, she won’t be around to keep the kids in line. She is confident that the children will behave on their own. As the kids prepare and put their best clothes on, Simon decides to pull another one of his pranks.

Shortly after, Aunt Adelaide arrives. She tells Cedric she’s here to support him. When he hears this, Cedric is overjoyed and thanks her immensely, but his joy is cut short when Adelaide reveals she wants to adopt one of his daughters. She wants to give her a proper education. Adelaide believes that this will make it easy for Cedric to provide for the rest of his kids, but she doesn’t know she’s making Cedric’s life harder than it already is.

To choose one of the kids, Adelaide decides to go see them, but they’re nowhere to be seen. Struggling with her poor eyesight, Adelaide confuses a pig wearing makeup for one of Cedric’s daughters. Cedric recognizes this as one of his children’s pranks. It then turns out they are hiding from their aunt. They’re about to use a donkey for their next prank when it runs off.

Chrissy is running to stop the donkey when she pumps into Adelaide, and since Chrissy looks like the perfect girl, Adelaide decides to adopt her. With their sister in trouble, the kids have no one to turn to except for Nanny McPhee. They need her now more than ever.

Luckily for them, McPhee returns from her picnic. She casts a spell that makes the donkey sing and dance like a girl, distracting Adelaide and allowing Chrissy to run back to her siblings.

Even more surprising, the spell causes Adelaide to think the donkey is one of Cedric’s daughters. Adelaide admires the donkey and decides to adopt it. McPhee then tells the kids that one of them must eventually go with Adelaide since the donkey can’t stay with her forever.

As she’s about to leave, Adelaide reminds Cedric to remarry by the end of the month. Cedric decides to stand up to her and tells her to stop ordering him around. He also doesn’t want her to take any of his children. Before a heated argument can erupt between the two, McPhee interrupts and gives Adelaide her hat. She tells her that the carriage is ready, and one of Cedric’s daughters has decided to join her.

After Adelaide leaves, Cedric asks McPhee what that was about. McPhee tells him the children have made a decision and have chosen one of them to go with Adelaide. Cedric panics and runs after the carriage, thinking Chrissy is inside it, but the carriage races away and Cedric fails to catch up.

However, much to Cedric’s relief, he finds out none of his children are inside the carriage, and the one with Adelaide turns out to be Evangeline, and thanks to McPhee’s magic spell, Adelaide believes Evangeline is Cedric’s daughter. This is soon revealed to be Simon’s idea. He knew Evangeline wanted to get some education and learn how to read, so he convinced her to go.

At night, McPhee tucks the children in. They all thank her for saving them from their great-aunt. Surprisingly, the other mole on McPhee’s face disappears, much to the children’s surprise. McPhee then goes to talk to Cedric. She tells him the children learned their third lesson, which is to get dressed when they’re told.

Sometime later, McPhee gets along with the kids and takes them out for a small picnic. As they have a chat, the children say they are worried their father is going to remarry and ask McPhee if she can help. However, McPhee doesn’t want to interfere in Cedric’s private matters. She suggests that Simon talk to him instead.

Following this, Cedric is at work when Simon stops by after he discovered his father’s intention to marry Mrs. Quickly. As Simon urges his father not to go through with it, Cedric clarifies that this is an adult matter and tells his son to stay out of it. When Simon continues to nag, Cedric snaps and shouts at his son to get out of his sight.

This saddens Simon, who then rushes home to seek advice from McPhee. He tells her of his intention to drive Mrs. Quickly crazy and get rid of her. McPhee agrees to let Simon do whatever he wants only if he takes full responsibility and accepts the consequences of what he’ll do, and the latter willingly agrees.

Later that day, Cedric invites Mrs. Quickly to his home and introduces her to his kids, but they are not exactly fond of her, as she gives them the creeps. As she has a sit-down with Cedric, the kids do their best to drive Mrs. Quickly out of their home. Cedric thwarts their attempts, but he ends up creeping Mrs. Quickly out. This prompts her to reject Cedric, slap him, and storm out, never to return again.

The kids are happy, believing they won’t have a stepmother like Mrs. Quickly to order them around or tell them what to do. However, their joy is short-lived when the heartbroken Cedric opens up, revealing that Aunt Adelaide has been supporting them for years by paying the rent of their home. He also tells his kids the truth about him being forced to remarry and what Aunt Adelaide will do if he doesn’t.

The kids now realize the consequences of their pranks. They now know that they’ll be homeless. They also know they might end up in somebody else’s care or be sent to the workhouse.

Thinking McPhee has some magical solution to this problem, the kids tell her to do something. They suggest that she bang her staff to undo what happened. McPhee says no and tells the kids to take responsibility for what they did. She also encourages them to think of a way to fix the damage they did and right their wrongs.

For this reason, Simon and his siblings knock at Mrs. Quickly’s door. They say sorry for ruining her sit-down with their dad. They also clarify that their dad wasn’t being a creep. He was just trying to protect her from their nasty pranks.

Mrs. Quickly doesn’t believe them and is about to shut the door in their faces. However, she quickly changes her mind when she learns about the truth of Cedric’s situation and the pressure Adelaide is putting on him. This change of mind is not out of sympathy or love for Cedric, but because of Adelaide’s money.

For this reason, Mrs. Quickly rushes to Cedric’s home. She decides to forget all about their previous sit-down and marry him. Cedric then awkwardly proposes to Mrs. Quickly, who’s twice his age. Happily, the latter says yes.

At night, Cedric spends some quality time with his kids and bonds with them. He admits that this is all his fault because none of it would’ve happened if he discussed his remarriage with them first, but the kids admit that the fault is theirs. They come to the conclusion that they should’ve understood the reason behind their dad’s remarriage first.

After he and his kids come to an understanding, Cedric reads them a story and puts them to sleep. Cedric then runs into McPhee. He becomes blown away when he sees that McPhee’s face looks younger, her nose sounds smaller, and her hair is blonde. She informs him the kids learned their fourth lesson, which is to listen and understand.

On the day of the wedding, the children dress well for the occasion. Mrs. Quickly then has a moment with her soon-to-be stepchildren. She states that she will be in charge of the house. She also orders them to behave at the wedding.

Mrs. Quickly then takes Aggie’s rattle away and breaks it in half. This outrages the kids since this rattle is a token from their mother. Mrs. Quickly carelessly replies that she’s the mother now and tells the kids to deal with it. The kids realize at this moment that Mrs. Quickly would not make an ideal stepmother. She’s just as cruel as the stepmothers they read about in their stories.

Soon after, Aunt Adelaide arrives and meets Mrs. Quickly, and given Adelaide’s riches, Mrs. Quickly flatters her and gives her an awkward welcome. Evangeline then walks in, and Adelaide introduces her as her adopted daughter. Much to everyone’s surprise, Evangeline has changed. She walks and talks using fancy words after Adelaide educated her and turned her into a proper woman.

Following this, the wedding takes place. Simon feels like he must do something to stop it from happening. The last thing he wants is a cruel stepmother. When he asks Nanny McPhee for advice, she tells him about the fifth lesson. This lesson is to do exactly as he’s told.

As Mrs. Quickly walks down the aisle, she tells the kids to behave. Through a magic spell from McPhee, Baby Aggie whispers the word beehive to Simon. This gives Simon a new idea. Along with his siblings, Simon decides to ruin the wedding. They all pretend to be attacked by bees and fool the attendants into believing there are actual bees. Even the priest named Vicar, who’s allergic to them, is convinced.

Mrs. Quickly sees through the act and asks Cedric if he can see any bees. Cedric looks at Simon for a moment and understands what he’s trying to do. Cedric then slaps an imaginary bee on Mrs. Quickly’s hat and knocks her over. Thinking there’s a bee, Vicar tries to scare it away, but he accidentally smashes a cake into Mrs. Quickly’s face.

Mad, Mrs. Quickly retaliates, but she accidentally hits a pie into Adelaide’s face. This causes chaos and turns the wedding into a battle of throwing cakes and pies. Evangeline, who has been taking lessons in etiquette, gets accidentally hit by a cake, so she joins the battle and has some fun.

The battle stops when Mrs. Quickly yells that enough is enough. Seeing Cedric’s kids mocking her, Mrs. Quickly is about to attack them when Cedric stops her, telling her not to touch his kids.

Mrs. Quickly then decides to break up with Cedric. She says she doesn’t care how much money Adelaide has before she quickly storms off. Hearing this, Adelaide feels insulted and scolds Cedric for not picking his wife wisely. She also berates Evangeline because she got carried away and acted wildly. Convinced that Cedric is not remarrying anytime soon, Adelaide decides to cut off her financial support for good.

Adelaide then is about to leave with Evangeline when suddenly Simon suggests that Cedric marry the latter. This is when Adelaide realizes that Evangeline is not Cedric’s daughter but his maid. Lily then asks Cedric and Evangeline if they love each other. Since Cedric and Evangeline are not in the same social class, both of them shy away from answering that question.

However, Evangeline decides to take a leap of faith. She breaks the boundary and admits that she loves Cedric. As for Cedric, he initially stutters a bit, but then he too decides to take the leap and confesses his love. Just like that, the two decide to marry. Adelaide finds this shocking and faints.

McPhee bangs her staff one last time and makes the snow fall in the summer of August to celebrate this lovely occasion. She then transforms into a completely beautiful woman, as her awkward tooth completely disappears.

The wedding then takes place, and McPhee walks Evangeline down the aisle. Using her magic, McPhee transforms Evangeline’s clothes into a wedding dress. McPhee also restores Aggie’s rattle.

Now that the kids learned all of her five lessons, McPhee’s job as a nanny is pretty much done, so she decides to leave. After all, this is the way she works. The children now love her and want her to stay, but they no longer need her because McPhee now knows that they can behave responsibly and manage without her.

Nanny McPhee.