I didn't have high expectations going into The Nanny Diaries, most especially because Scarlett Johansson is not my favorite actress. In general, most of her recent movies overwhelmingly focus on her boobs, which annoyed me so much, that I stopped seeing her films. Part of her problem is that she seems to have become Woody Allen's latest muse, and we all know what he thinks of younger women. Happily, in The Nanny Diaries the offenders are under wraps and while this is not a great movie, it's not such a bad one either.
For one thing, it's an interesting story about race and class. For those who haven't read the book, Johansson plays Annie Braddock, a Jersey working class girl who realizes that she doesn't want a career in finance and falls into a job as a nanny to the Park Avenue set. Having been brought up by a single mom (the always-great Donna Murphy) who has worked her ass off to give her daughter everything she never had, Annie lies to her about her job to stave off the lecture of disappointment and regret.
The responsibilities and expectations placed on the nannies for the really rich is just ridiculous. The people that Annie works for are absurdly wealthy, and because she is white and college-educated, she is a precious commodity. Most of the nannies come from the Caribbean, Asia or Ireland, as we are shown in an early scene where the nanny world is laid out for Annie by her peers. Her easy summer in the city starts to look a lot harder when she realizes that she is a "Type Three Nanny," the 24/7 kind. "Type One" is a couple of evenings a week, and "Type Two" is an afternoon nanny, which I was about 15 years ago. Additionally, the invisibility of the women who are raising the children of the rich is bluntly at play here. They are invisible to the people they work for, but are the only ones who pay attention to their children, usually to the detriment of their own children.
The women whose children are being raised, bathed, clothes, and loved by other women are a lonely, sad bunch with absent husbands who work non-stop to keep up their fancy lifestyles that they never get to enjoy. Paul Giammati plays Mr. X, a disconnected businessman who doesn't ever acknowledge Annie except when he tries to grope her. He only deals with his love-starved son Grayer when he sees fit. Laura Linney, in another outstanding performance, plays the sad and incredibly well-dressed Mrs. X as a woman as desperate in need of attention as her five-year-old son. The whole family is just sad.
The overall premise is a bit thin, and I wonder if anyone outside New York City will be able to relate to these absurd people. Watching this movie made me understand why people think of New York City as a completely different world from the rest of the country. This examination of the social world of the Upper East Side upper crust is interesting because it confirms that old adage: money can't buy you everything.