A trippy fix of British fun

I have to be honest, when I first saw the trailer for "Nanny McPhee," I thought it looked trippy. I'm as big a fan of trippy movies as the next guy, but this one initially looked like it lacked the substance deep enough to see and enjoy it. How wrong I was.\n"Nanny McPhee" (based on a popular British series of children's books in the 1960s and 70s) comes out of nowhere as a crafty, funny subversion of the family movie norm, whose frank awkwardness becomes a point of intrigue. Bottom line: the whole thing is bizarre but in a good way.\nThe story is weird but absorbing. At some undisclosed time, in some undisclosed, British-sounding place, there was a man, Cedric Brown (Colin Firth), whose wife died, leaving him with seven disgruntled, poorly behaved children. After the nanny service in town blacklists him, he resorts to his only option: the strange, ugly woman who appears at his doorstep promising that she can make his children well-behaved. Of course, she will do this with magic and trickery and requires Sunday afternoons off.\nThe characters are odd but lovable, and the acting is top-notch. Emma Thompson (Nanny McPhee) shows that she could carry this movie solely on her character's wart-covered back, but she doesn't have to. Angela Lansbury, as the father's well-to-do, eccentric aunt, delivers a laugh-out-loud performance, and the children (especially the oldest, played by young Thomas Sangster) are believable and easy to get attached to.\nThe visuals are quirky but somehow appropriate. At any given time, the screen is filled with a number of vibrant, clashing colors that somehow manage to go together. The setting and clothing are battered and rustic, yet inexplicably comfortable. It all makes you feel uneasy in some happy way.\nThe film's only flaw is that it seems to drag on a bit too much in the second half. After seeing McPhee's antics in the first part of the film, making the audience suddenly anxious for more, the storyline shifts and Thompson's character begins to take a backseat to everything else in the film and is onscreen less and less. This is a huge mistake, given how much fun things are when she takes the wheel.\n Overall, though, "Nanny McPhee" is a funny and touching treat. It is weird enough to enjoy and happy enough to brighten your whole week, kind of like a good drug.