The Nanny Diaries: How the Other Half Loathes
Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney

By Breanne Boland September 6, 2007 Issue

Oh, this plague of chick lit, these thinly veiled autobiographies that expose the sins of the upper class. The Nanny Diaries was written (or compiled) by two women who worked as nannies for wealthy Manhattan families, making lives easier for women with more time and money than sense. Their book became sensationally successful, and Scarlett Johansson stars as the eponymous Nanny in the film version.

A business student on the run from a career, Johansson’s character falls almost literally into being a nanny for Grayer, the young son of the X family. Mrs. X, played to brittle and surprisingly sympathetic perfection by normally earthy Laura Linney, is a botoxed, desperate wife to Mr. X, played by Paul Giamatti. Mr. X is a high-powered president of… something, whose interests include money, neglect, and adultery. Giamatti undoubtedly was involved because this film is directed by the same duo that helmed the superior American Splendor. Alas, he’s miscast here, and he sleepwalks through all of his scenes with a sneer, a villain without depth or motive. Both parents are far too consumed by their affairs — social or sexual — to take much notice of their son beyond his potential as yet another status object.

Johansson’s anthropology student finds ample material here, and it’s this angle that provides the most ingenious and interesting parts of the film. The wealthy Manhattan family is contrasted to the indigenous family structures of the world, shown cast in wax and behind glass in the Museum of Natural History alongside loincloth-wearing natives. This outside observer point of view carries through the film, making a run-of-the-mill expose cleverer than it has any right to be. Ultimately, though, it only displays lost potential. American Splendor played so well with format and with narrative convention, and to see its directors fizzle and sputter here makes an already disappointing film even more so.

Johansson is fine; the writing is often clever. The problem is in the story itself, an issue that plagued the book as well. The film is 90 minutes of watching a young woman let herself be walked on, over and over again. Normally, the conventions of commercial cinema would step in and make this be a path to a satisfying end. After weeks of being walked on, the Nanny would make a stand and provide us catharsis, some deserved relief following all the abuse and passive aggression. Instead, the tacked-on happy ending is a letdown, providing yet another bit of fizzle when we want — need — bangs and explosions. The storybook ending, the lessons learned, they’re unbelievable and feel false. A slow, unsatisfying ending is the only logical conclusion for the spineless main character and the hardened, arrogant parents, and to suggest that anything else could happen, after a whole film’s worth of evidence to the contrary, only underlines the shortcomings of the rest of the narrative.

On the other hand, if you’re ever plagued by the desire to have children or a yearning to be wealthy, this film will cure you right quick. I swear my fallopian tubes spontaneously tied themselves in knots within the first 20 minutes, and rarely have I been so glad to be a thousandaire firmly in the middle class.

Bottom line: an unsatisfying tour of the Upper East Side

Coming Attractions
Sept. 7
3:10 to Yuma - OK, so Russell Crowe is well established as a jerk and a hothead, but he nearly always delivers, especially in period pieces like this Western. Costarring Christian Bale as his partner in drama, this one looks like it should be, at the very least, a display of great acting.

The Brothers Solomon - Two rather dim brothers seek women with which to, ah, procreate in order to give their dying father a grandchild. It sounds kind of stupid, but it involves people from such marvelous things as Arrested Development and Mr. Show.

Shoot ‘Em Up - Clive Owen and Monica Belluci (are there many prettier pairs in theaters right now? I think not) play members of the underworld who work together to protect a baby from Paul Giamatti’s big bad.

Sept. 14
The Brave One - Jodie Foster’s character is recovering from an attack that wounded her and killed her fiancÈ. She begins to wreak revenge, keeping anonymous to protect her day job as a radio talk show host, but is uncertain what she’s doing is the right thing.

Eastern Promises - Naomi Watts plays a midwife seeking the identity of a dead prostitute. Viggo Mortensen’s criminal gives her an underworld orientation as she looks for answers. Directed by David Cronenberg.

The Hunting Party - Two journalists and a cameraman go into Bosnia, ostensibly seeking stories but really looking for a war criminal with a high price on his head. The criminal learns of this and begins to hunt them in return, thinking they’re allied with the CIA.

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