Customise Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorised as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customised advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyse the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Movie Review: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’

NEW YORK — It has taken more than half a century, but at long last “Mary Poppins Returns” (Disney). The result is a delightful sequel to the 1964 classic that will divert all but the youngest and most skittish members of the family.

Flashing forward some two decades or so from the Edwardian time period of the original, the follow up finds omnicompetent (and unaged) nanny Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) swooping into Depression-era London to help Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane (Emily Mortimer) Banks — the now-grown siblings she tended as children — face a family crisis.

Michael is a recent widower whose three children, Annabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh) and Georgie (Joel Dawson), need more methodical care than that provided by their well-meaning but overtaxed housekeeper, Ellen (Julie Walters). And single Jane will require a nudge to end up in the arms of local lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), as she is clearly destined to do.

There’s also a financial threat looming over the household since seemingly friendly banker William Weatherall Wilkins (Colin Firth) is actually scheming to foreclose on the mortgage. To forestall this disaster, Michael will have to find the certificate showing that his father had a sizable number of shares in the bank — a cache worth more than the debt.

Sprightly set-piece musical numbers — composer Marc Shaiman collaborated on the lyrics with Scott Wittman — the main character’s engaging blend of common sense and whimsical magic and brief but thoroughly entertaining turns by Meryl Streep, Angela Lansbury and Dick Van Dyke make director Rob Marshall’s loose adaptation of material from books by P.L. Travers a first-class treat.

Moments of jeopardy and one verse of a music hall-style song describing how a wealthy lady disguises the fact that she’s rich by imitating Eve’s minimalist fig-leaf wardrobe are as close as the movie comes to anything worrisome for parents. Otherwise, David Magee’s script is squeaky clean.

No spoonful of sugar is needed to make this tasty confection go down, whether at holiday time or during the post-New Year’s lull that generally follows.

The film contains characters in peril and brief, extremely mild risque humor. The Catholic News Service classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

Copyright ©2018 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

John Mulderig

Catholic News Service is a leading agency for religious news. Its mission is to report fully, fairly and freely on the involvement of the church in the world today.

En español »