On Mother’s Day weekend we were planning on going out to dinner and then to a movie. But poor Ben was sick (throwing up constantly sick) so a family outing was, well…. “out”.

So we decided to bring dinner home, and Josh bought us the newly released “Nanny McPhee” DVD. We had missed the movie while it was at theaters, so we were excited to watch it. I don’t usually “review” movies on my blog (Josh says that because I either love a movie or hate it and that I am not very objective)… but I think Nanny McPhee is a really fun family movie. I for one, am big on happy endings. It’s definitely a “happy ending” kind of movie. The special effects are really really cool, and the humor is young enough for the kids, and yet also still very funny and enjoyable for adults. It was a movie we really enjoyed watching together as a family.

If you haven’t seen it, it is a movie about a family in which the mother has recently passed away (gosh that happens a lot in kids’ movies!) and the father is left alone to work, pay the bills, and raise the seven children. The movie starts with the father talking about his seven children who are “very bright, but very, very, very, very naughty.”

And they are very, very, very, very naughty. The kids are on their seventeenth nanny as the movie starts, and she doesn’t last long. They behave so horribly that even the meanest and strictest nannies in the land don’t stand a chance. Nanny McPhee arrives, and the story unfolds from there.

Now, it is really not an “adoption” movie in any sense, but I did think it is a really good conversation starter for kids who were adopted or have gone through any great loss. The kids in the movie act horribly in the beginning because they are grieving. They are sad and they are scared and they are angry, and they are going through huge changes in their lives. How many children act similarly when they are first placed with a new adoptive family? Even children that don’t act out, certainly share some of these feelings.

Even better is that the movie follows the children through the healing process, and into the beginning of a “fresh start”, showing that there is always hope, forgiveness and a reason to be happy (and well behaved!).

None of this is done in a dramatic or serious way, but it is done in a really fun and funny way, so that the kids just love it.

So, I am recommending Nanny McPhee as a fun family rental this summer and I encourage you to take advantage of the conversations that can naturally follow after watching. Enjoy!