HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR EMMA THOMPSON'S NANNY MCPHEE DITCHES THE SPOONFUL OF SUGAR.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

After winning an Oscar in 1996 for adapting Jane Austen's ``Sense and Sensibility'' for Ang Lee, Emma Thompson figured she'd give a family film a try. After Austen, how hard could it be, right?

Wrong. Ten years later, the movie Thompson wrote, ``Nanny McPhee,'' based (very) loosely on Christianna Brand's fairly obscure (and, until recently, out-of-print) ``Nurse Matilda'' children's books, has finally arrived. And not a moment too soon for Thompson.

``It was an ab-so-lute bugger,'' Thompson says with a dramatic sigh. ``I didn't know what I was getting into. I wanted the movie to be for everyone, not just children. That's really hard. Because if you're writing for everyone, there's no hard-and-fast way to do it. And finding the kind of simplicity that can make a story like this timeless is a hard-won battle, let me tell you, the hardest - and most satisfying - thing I've ever done.''

``Nanny McPhee'' is ``Mary Poppins'' without the songs - and without the relentless cheerfulness. Thompson plays the title character, a stern woman with a bulbous nose, a pair of hairy warts and a pronounced snaggletooth. She mysteriously arrives at the home of a widower (Cedric Brown, played by Colin Firth) who's about to lose his unruly brood of seven children to the poorhouse.

Eschewing a spoonful of sugar for a magical stick that dishes out stern discipline for naughty kids, Nanny McPhee restores order with a quiet authority that brings to mind - not by accident - the heroes of classic Hollywood Westerns.

``When I stop and think of the shape of the story, it occurred to me quite recently that it was 'Shane,' '' Thompson says, referring to George Stevens' 1953 classic. ``The outsider, the stranger, comes into a situation of great complexity and chaos where all the systems of authority have broken down and uses unorthodox methods to re-create balance and harmony and then has to leave.

``It's the same kind of thing,'' Thompson says. ``Nanny McPhee doesn't say very much. What she says is necessary and to the point. And if she needs to pause, she damn well pauses.'' And here Thompson - who knows a thing or two about timing - pauses for effect. ``And she is miles uglier than any of those cowboys, though, don't you think?''

Well, maybe not Ernie Borgnine, but we get the point.

Without knowing the movie's long-and-winding history, most people figure Thompson, 46, decided to adapt ``Nanny McPhee'' after giving birth to her daughter, Gaia, six years ago. Actually, there was a family member on Thompson's mind when she started writing (Gaia hadn't been born yet) - her dad, Eric.

Eric Thompson wrote for the classic English children's television show ``The Magic Roundabout,'' which ran for several years while Thompson was a little girl.

``'The show was subversive in many ways and used a lot of complicated words,'' Thompson says. ``My dad loved words. So on a given episode, the dog would refer to the snail as a mollusk. He would get letters from children saying, 'I've just called my sister a mollusk. My mom hit me. What's mollusk mean?' ''

Thompson inherited her father's appreciation for language and was determined to write a children's movie that wouldn't patronize youngsters or bore adults.

``A lot of kids' movies seem to assume that children can't sit still for more than 30 seconds or follow a plot line,'' Thompson says. ``And no one understands a plot line better than a kid. So if you have a good story, they'll listen.''

Says co-star Firth: ``I've seen people make movies that say, 'This is aimed at 17-year-old girls,' and it's a 'My Little Pony' kind of movie. The 17-year-old girls I know like 'Requiem for a Dream,' the heroin movie. You can't underestimate your audience.''

``Nanny McPhee'' doesn't, though it does try to include a little something for everyone. For the little ones, there are two food fights and a donkey wearing lipstick; for older kids, there are scenes of more complex and inspired mischief as well as a snowflake-laden wedding scene that's right out of a fairy tale.

And for adults, the movie has a knowing sense of the difficulties that come with trying to be a good parent and keep it all together.

``It's a mix, and I love mixes, but it's tough to get the elements right,'' says director Kirk Jones, whose first movie, ``Waking Ned Devine,'' contained a similar blend of whimsy and emotion. Jones spent a year editing the movie before it was released in England last October to great business and mixed reviews. (``Some of the broadsheets were incredibly sniffy - and not sniffy in a useful, constructive sort of way,'' Thompson sniffs. ``It was really dim criticism.'') Jones previewed the film extensively and eventually cut back on the romance and some of the more morbid aspects of the Firth character's mortician job.

It's more of a kids' movie now, but still, you won't find any big speeches or moralizing, though, as Firth points out, ``We do try to spin a bit of wisdom in there.''

``Grown-ups have this terrible habit of always having an agenda,'' Thompson says. ``There's always the next thing to do. The one thing you need to learn as a parent is to take time and stop. Disciplining children is hardly ever necessary. What's necessary is to put down what you're doing and stop and listen and wait. Because actually all they want is your attention and a bit of bloody peace and you not going on to do the next damn thing that you have to do.''

Does Thompson the mom practice the Nanny McPhee brand of parenting?

``Every day is a journey,'' she says. ``I haven't got anything like her consistency or judiciousness or a magic bloody stick, which would come in very handy, thank you very much.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Emma Thompson sinks her tooth into juicy role as star, screenwriter of `Nanny McPhee'

Warts and all

(2) no caption (scene from ``Nanny McPhee'')

(3) Professional mischief maker Eric (Raphael Coleman) cooks up a big batch of trouble in ``Nanny McPhee.''

(4) The elder Brown children, Simon (Thomas Sangster) and Tora (Eliza Bennett), prepare to launch.

(5) The youngest Brown, food-obsessed Sebastian (Sam Honywood), presides over a humongous culinary mess.

(6) - Emma Thompson