Nanny McPhee

The plan for bonfire night - a strangely unique British holiday, celebrating someone trying to blow something up and failing - was to get down to Meadowbank stadium and enjoy the pyrotechnics in the chill November air; an event which has become an annual treat. But we failed to realise that it was the 400th anniversary of Guy Faulks' plot and the extra celebrations planned had inspired everyone and their dogs to snap up all the tickets in advance! There was nothing for it but to check the cinema listings for something suitably PG, and that turned out to be the Emma Thompson scripted Nanny McPhee. The idea didn't exactly fill me with excitement, but the revelation of an undiscovered cinema in Edinburgh did. The Dominion in Morningside has been here much longer than I have yet somehow it had managed to hide beneath the shadow of the multiplexes till now. It's big appeal is that it has managed to maintain its independence with a touch of class, to say the least - a beautiful bar with regency trimmings, ushers in proper waiscoats and leather sofas and footstools in every screen! Making it more like a posh theatre than a cinema, a real flashback to how it used to be. What luxury to be able to take your shoes off and lay back while watching on the big screen - by the end I had all but forgotten there were other people there, so much was it like my own livingroom. Brilliant! As for the film: not bad at all - sickly sweet and very predictable, but it is aimed at very young ones. It does have a touch of class wrapped up in an entirely British sensibility that draws obvious comparisons to Mary Poppins. There is a lot of magic in there and only time will tell if it can come close to the status that film enjoys. Personally I could have done without the talking donkey, but I am 32... 7.5/10 Kx