A comedy about life at the top, as seen from the bottom. Based on the bestselling novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, THE NANNY DIARIES stars Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney and Alicia Keyes and comes from the award winning filmmakers Robert Pulcini and Shari Berman.
by menaka17lk
on 27/10/2007 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
What I loved most: The film's social satire
What I really hated: Stereotyping till the end
The Nanny Diaries was unexpectedly both funny and sad. Scarlett Johansson brought genuine warmth to her role of a bright student who decides to be a high society nanny in order to find herself. Other than the fact that I found it hard to believe that any self-respecting smart young woman with a hard working single parent mom, would voluntarily wait hand and foot on a spoiled rich woman (whose most tiring moment of a day is getting in and out of a limo) a tad unbelievable, Johansson was sweet and endearing. Laura Linney, was akin to Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada, in her intelligent portrayal of a character who could have easily been one dimensional. But the person who really stole the show was the adorable tyke, when he tells Johansson to never leave him, I swear I felt a tear. The Nanny Diaries was a witty and humane look at a certain side of high class society, with its pretense, superficiality and sincerity. Unfortunately the film tended to generalize but at the end of the day..it may not have been as entertaining had it not. Money really cannot buy happiness...who knew??
I've got one word for this movie - sweet. It left me with an after taste of sugary sweetness and gave me fuzzy butterflies in my stomach. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this movie, and I was a little surprised that it turned out better than I expected.
The film is adapted from the 2002 novel by real life former nannies Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. It's the second movie for filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who featured the fabulously grouchy Paul Giamatti (who plays Mr.X in "The Nanny Diaries") in "American Splendor" back in 2003. Although this movie is different from "American Splendor", it does have some good points of its own.
The whole movie opened with an interesting anthropologist's point of view, with statues of ancient cavemen juxtaposed with modern New York lifestyle, which featured 'Tribeca Fashionista' and the 'Park Slope Lawyer' (both of whom are successful women). The scene then slowly moves to the lifestyle of the people living in the Upper East Side, and that's where the whole story begins.
Scarlet Johansson was made for the role of Annie Braddock. Although a tinge of her formidable glamour was still in sight, it was forgivable since she portrayed the role of a struggling fresh grad so well. Laura Linney could very well be the next Meryl Streep in "Devil Wears Prada". With her high sense of fashion, expensive taste and straight-up, no-fun attitude, she managed to illustrate a way of life amongst the upper crust so well. Not forgetting that she could look incredibly intimidating at one time (when she orders Annie around), and so vulnerable the next (when she tries to hold her husband's hand).
There were times when the movie reminded me of "Mary Poppins", especially the few scenes where Scarlet was flying around with a red umbrella. A good focus was given to the lifestyles of the people in the Upper East Side, along with how nannies are generally seen and treated there. But don't get the wrong idea of this movie being another typical 'nanny' movie where you only see how the nanny had to clean up everyone's messes. The film doesn't just revolve around Annie as a nanny but rather what she sees and experiences during the term when she became a nanny, which makes this movie different from the rest.
A life's lesson is bound to pop up somewhere in a film like this, but thankfully, they don't try to shove the lesson right down our throats. Instead, they leave it lingering in the air to give the audience something to ponder about after the movie.
Overall, this movie is a good watch. It is also something you can bring your dates to: it's not too mushy for your goose bumps to start popping out and not too serious for you to feel like you're in a classroom.
Production Photos - Click thumbnail for larger photos
