Five Children And It (2004)

Five Children and It is a wonderful film based on the novel by E. Nesbit. In this film, five children named, in age order, Cyril, Anthia, Robert, Jane, and the Lamb find themselves in a house with their mad uncle, his magical maid, and his son, because their father is sent away to war, and their mother is helping the wounded and sick. But what they discover when they explore the forbidden greenhouse turns their whole lives upside down.

My favourite scene is when they discover It, the magical and hilarious Psammead (sand fairy, pronounced Sam-ee-ad), and then foolishly wish that all their tasks (there are so many!) could be done. This movie’s overarching theme is loss. The children lose their father, and cope with it in a variety of different ways. For example, Cyril tries to forget about their dad, whilst Robert tries to cling on to him, and act as if he’d never gone. If this film was an equation, it would look like this: 5 children + a naughty Psammead-an odd cousin x a father working as a pilot and a mother helping the war’s casualties = A hilarious movie, amazingly directed by John Stephenson. T

I would recommend this film to not only fans of E. Nesbit’s unique writing style, but also those who are reading this and saying “Huh? Who in the WHOLE ENTIRE MULTIVERSE is this E. Nesbit guy?” When watching this film, you laugh, you cry, you cover your face, and then you prepare for the next scene. When you next have 85-90 minutes to spare, you should pop onto the couch and watch this wonderfully acted movie.