The Nanny Diaries

WARNING: My reviews almost always contain spoilers, so if you really don't want to know what happens, I'd advise you not to read them.

First thing's first: I don't like Scarlett Johansson. Sure, she's probably one of the most gorgeous people in the world, and her odd sort of beauty can be more than transfixing (even for those with no sexual attraction to her), especially when you're looking up into those big blue eyes and full, pouty lips on the big screen. I'll give her that. But as an actress, I find her dreadfully boring, a little awkward and almost always unsure of herself. Somehow, she manages to look and feel out of place in costume dramas (Girl With A Pearl Earring, The Prestige) and more contemporary fare (Match Point, Scoop). Don't get me wrong though, I absolutely loved her as Charlotte in Lost in Translation. That big breakthrough performance of hers had me just as in love as every one else was, but her follow-up work just hasn't been able to live up to the promise.

Case in point: The Nanny Diaries, directed by the husband-and-wife team Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. In concept, Johansson's character here, Annie Braddock, is like the twin sister of her character in Lost in Translation. Recently college-graduated New Yorker, unsure of what to do with the rest of her life, and stuck in that mid-twentysomething ennui that seems to plague everyone. But the execution of the performance couldn't be more opposite. Whereas in Lost in Translation she was relaxed and effortlessly soulful, here she just seems to be trying desperately to get a laugh from the audience or just to make some sense of the character and it unfortunately doesn't work for the most part. Much of the blame should be put on the writer/directors though, for not guiding her well enough, nor writing an interesting or mature character.

The story revolves around Annie as she takes up a job as a nanny to make some extra cash before diving into full-on career mode with her psych degree. Her employers are an extremely wealthy upper-East-side couple named "Mr and Mrs X" and the job is to be the primary caregiver for their adorable toddler Grayer. Along the way, Annie and Grayer strike up an unexpected friendship (even love) and she falls for a dead sexy guy from down the hall named "Harvard Hottie" (Chris Evans), two things that are strictly forbidden by Mrs X. Laura Linney, a far more capable actress than Scarlett Johansson, is able to get a little more bang for her buck, although admittedly she has the far meatier role. Her line readings and comedic timing are impeccable (as always), and she effortlessly shades her role with some gray areas in some of her more sympathetic scenes.

About three quarters of the way into the movie, I actually was starting to enjoy where it was going, and thought it was brave to explore the relationship between nanny and child, a bond not often shown in movies or literature. But then the movie decides to opt for an ending designed to make everyone happy, except perhaps the audience. Doesn't it feel a little cheap that a woman as spiteful and neglecting as Mrs X should just get to have her son all to herself with no punishment, while the woman who basically raised the boy for about a year never gets to see him again? The Nanny Diaries is really an incompetent movie, neither funny nor charming or insightful, and gains only a fraction of my respect because it's graced with the brilliance of the Lovely Laura Linney.

Grade: C