Review

Review Date: 26-August-07
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Just OK

The Nanny Diaries (2007)

I did not know what to expect from The Nanny Diaries, having never seen the preview or read the book, but I developed hopes during the opening credits when I recognized the writing/directing team as the same that made American Splendor. The poster in the lobby identified The Nanny Diaries as a social comedy, so would it be another funny-heartbreaking, brilliant slice of life that defied categorization? Well, the movie does combine elements of comedy and drama but not in the service of brilliance. It is well-intentioned but not as deep or not as shallow as it should be.

The ambivalence of the film begins with its leading lady, Scarlett Johansson, whom I have always liked but haven't yet pegged as truly good or merely adequate. (Perhaps her skill depends on its context.) She exhibits little personality here as Annie Braddock, a college grad from New Jersey whose hardworking single mom (Donna Murphy) has big plans for her Wall Street future. When Annie muffs a corporate interview because she can't answer the question "Who is Annie Braddock?", she grasps at her first employment opportunity and moves into a posh Manhattan home as nanny to a boy whose progenitors are too self-involved for parenting.

To understand this decision and what it means for Annie's development would require more back story, but the movie forges ahead to concentrate on the culture of the Upper East Side. This is embodied by the boy's nominal mother, coyly called "Mrs. X" (Laura Linney), whose life revolves around shopping, spa treatments, and seminars on how to handle the pressures of child-rearing. For her narrowness and delusion of having value in the world we are meant to mock and pity her, and Linney's talent almost enables us to do both. But as we watch Annie and her young charge (Nicholas Reese Art) repeatedly abused by Mrs. X and her repulsive husband (Paul Giamatti), subtleties fly out the window. The fact is, anyone who would willingly tolerate such a situation is either a masochist or slavishly obsessed with how the other half (or one percent) lives, and is distasteful in either case. What is Annie's excuse? Her affection for the boy doesn't completely cut it (no matter what she does, he is going to turn out icky), so we are never allowed to know.

To make Annie's choices seem even more aberrant, her memoir includes glimpses of the "normal" experiences she rejects to shag dry cleaning and clean up vomit. Her best friend (Alicia Keys) has an apartment, a roommate, and a social life, and the frat boy who tries to court her (Chris Evans) meets a lot of resistance. These characters shed no light on Annie's motives and seem to exist for romantic comedy flavor. But why? The Nanny Diaries might hit home if it exposed the failings of its heroine and her captor-employers in a biting comedy, or if it explored the reasons why a nice young woman would try to find herself in a den of snakes and morons. Floating somewhere in between, the movie plays like a series of potent ideas and emotions whose relevance vanishes once the lights go up.

Copyright © 2007 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.