"Nanny Diaries" is Nothing to Write Home About

Genres: Comedy and Adaptation
Running Time: 1 hr. 45 min.
Release Date: August 24th, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language.
Distributors: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM)

Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

JJ Rating: B

Annie (Scarlett Johansson) botched an interview and decided to spend a moment at the park. That moment had her mistaken as a nanny and offered a lot of jobs. She decides to be a nanny and finds out it's far worse than she could have imagined. Nanny Diaries.

I like the beginning of the movie with the museum like visuals they had for the narration that is provided by Johansson. It's creative and interesting way of going about a beginning and a nice attempt at humor. I did laugh...but still it is an attempt.

Nanny Diaries is a movie that moves along at a single pace the entire time. There's no speeding up during a climax or slowing down during a ‘sad' moment. It's even through the entire movie. How it starts off is how it continues until the end of the movie. Is that bad thing? To some it would make it bland and for me it was alright. I did not really expect a whole lot from the movie to begin with. I'm still coming down off my humor high with Death at a Funeral to even be totally displeased with this movie---if it were to be displeasing.

I liked the names Annie gave people because she was telling the story like an anthropologist so she kept the names on the hush-hush and gave everyone nicknames. That's why there is a Mrs. (Laura Linney) and Mr. X (Paul Giamatti) and a Harvard Hottie (Chris Evans). It's an amusing thing and creatively neato from a creative standpoint.

The best part of the movie was the message about being able to do something to alter the thinking of those around you. I think that is a cool message. It states that compromising to just accept how people act isn't always necessarily a great idea. That one person could be telling you to do something for your best interest and listening to them might win you a great month in a house in the Hamptons all expenses paid. Inside joke for those who've seen the movie.