Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
On a farm in Britain during an unnamed war (possibly World War II), Mrs Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is driven to her wits end by her hectic life. Between trying to keep the family farm up and running and her job in the village shop, run by the slightly mad Mrs Doherty, she also has three boisterous children to look after, Norman (Asa Butterfield), Megsie (Lil Woods) and Vincent (Oscar Steer). All of this she has to do while her husband is away at war. So when her children's two spoiled cousins, Cyril (Eros Vlahos) and Celia (Rosie Taylor-Ritson) are sent to live on their farm and another war is being fought between the two sets of children, she is in need of a little magic.
So Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) arrives to take matters into her own hands. At first, the children do not listen and carry on fighting, but after a bang of Nanny McPhee's stick, they soon realise that they cannot go on fighting. Meanwhile, Mrs Green's brother in law, Uncle Phil (Rhys Ifans), has gambled away the farm, and is being chased down by two hit women. He desperately attempts to make Mrs Green sell her half of the farm, using many mean and spiteful schemes to make Mrs Green have no choice but to sell the farm. His plans include digging a hole so that the family piglets can escape. Mrs Green takes all the children on a picnic during which an ARP Warden, Mr Spolding (Sam Kelly), warns them all about bombs and how he imagines a pilot might accidentally release his bomb. At the end of the picnic Uncle Phil delivers a telegram saying that Mr Green has been 'killed in action' in the war. Mrs Green believes the telegram, along with everybody else. But Norman says that he can "feel it in his bones" that his father is not dead. He tells this to Cyril, who at first says it is just because he is upset, but then agrees that Norman might be right, so the two boys decide to ask Nanny McPhee to take them to London, where Cyril and Celia's father works.
They travel to London with Nanny McPhee and ask Cyril's father Lord Grey (Ralph Fiennes), who is very important in the War Office, what has happened to Mr Green. At first he sneers at Norman when he tells him about his disbelief of his father's death, but after Cyril angrily blurts out that he knows that his parents are getting a divorce, Lord Grey goes to check what has happened. While he is gone, Cyril tells Norman that he and Celia have been sent away because their parents will be splitting up, and Norman asks where Cyril and Celia will live. When Cyril replies "with Mum I suppose, not that it makes much difference, she only ever really sees us when she wants to show us off", Norman tells Cyril that he and Celia are welcome to go and live on the farm with the Greens. Cyril's father returns and tells Norman that his father is not dead, but M.I.A. - missing in action.
The boys then leave but Norman works out that Uncle Phil had altered the telegram before giving it to his mother. While the boys were at the War Office, Megsie, Celia and Vincent were trying to stop Mrs Green from signing the papers and selling the farm, Just as Mrs Green is about to sign the papers, a huge bomb is dropped, it shakes everything but does not explode and is sticking out of the barley field. When Nanny McPhee returns with Norman and Cyril, the children go out for watching Mr Spolding dismantle the bomb, but he falls from the ladder and Megsie takes over, and succeeds with the help of the other children and a bird. After Nanny McPhee helps to harvest the barley, with a little magic, it is revealed that old Mrs Doherty is in fact baby Aggie from the first film about the Brown children. As Nanny McPhee walks away from the now happy family, the children and Mrs Green chase after her, only to see that Mr Green (Ewan McGregor) in army uniform and with an injured arm, is making his way over to them, he runs to the children and Mrs Green and they all hug.
