Movie Review: "The Nanny Diaries"

The movie that I am about to review is one that the critics as well as many audience members panned. While it was, by no means, an outstanding film, I also didn't find it awful. It had possibilities. Unfortunately, they just were not realized.

I liked how the film started and, in better hands, I think that the opening could have been fun and clever. Unfortunately, in the hands of directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who also wrote the screenplay, t simply fell flat like much of the rest of the film.

Scarlett Johansson plays Annie Braddock, a student who has just graduated from college. Unfortunately, she isn't quite ready to settle into the life that her mother has all picked out for her. In fact, she has no idea at all what she wants to do with her life.

While she is trying to make that decision, Annie decides to look for a job. Quite by accident, she stumbles into one as a nanny for a somewhat neurotic Mrs. X, played by Laura Linney.

Mrs. X is married to an upper class big wig who ignores both her and their son. She has everything she thought she wanted - - money, prestige, power, and lots and lots of free time. Unfortunately, it isn't free time that she is willing to spend with her child; hence the need for a nanny.

At first, Annie thinks she has stumbled into a perfect life. She has a place to live away from her mother, an income, and free time while her charge is in school. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth because Mrs. X expects her to fill in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

It takes Annie a while to get her young charge to like her, but once she does, he becomes quickly attached and makes her promise that she will never leave him like his mother and father do. It is, of course, a promise, it turns out that she cannot keep.

Mr. X is pretty much the scum of the earth, hitting on anything and anyone with a heartbeat. He eventually gets around to hitting on his son's rather tasty little nanny too. The end result is that Annie loses her job and must break her charge's heart.