hyped garbage

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

On the one hand, "The Nanny Diaries" shows how the working-class nanny (Scarlett Johansson) goes through a change in life. But more important is that she sees what a screwed up life her employers have. Even though the movie is targeted at a younger audience, it's clear that these rich New Yorkers have a terrible marriage and barely any relationship with their son (just like the main character in "Bonfire of the Vanities"). This is the polar opposite of the sorts of movies that Woody Allen made in the 1990s, in which he fetishized the lives of these messed up people ("Everyone Says I Love You" was by far his worst movie ever).So, while this movie isn't any sort of masterpiece, it's still fun.

The Nanny Diaries (2007): Dir: Shari Springer Berman / Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Chris Evans, Alicia Keys: Recycled story about progression and accomplishment. Scarlett Johansson trudges through familiar territory as someone trying to find herself and lands a job as a nanny for a spoiled brat. Setup is paced well otherwise it is formula heading to a gushy ending. Director Shari Springer Berman does an inspiring job with visual images but that is about the height of creativity here. Johansson is a fine talent undergoing the lead in a film that does her absolutely no justice and could hinder her chances at superior projects as a lead. She is traveling a road so many others have traveled to similar avail. We know the outcome and it hardly matters. Laura Linney is the too busy doing nothing mother who will get told by Johansson to get her act together. Again, another actress traveling material done before. Paul Giamatti plays the horny pig-headed workaholic father who has no time for family. Too bad he wasn't too busy for this dreaded film. Chris Evans is wasted as a potential boyfriend. He is basically a romantic prop with all the personality of floor cleaner. And how Alicia Keys taking a moment to star in this bullshit formula driven garbage? All that's left is a tired retread and an entry in the diary that should read, "Johansson, fire your agent!" Score: 3 / 10

THE NANNY DIAIRIES is a saccharine and annoying comedy that tries to incorporate touches of whimsical fantasy that don't really work. The film stars Scarlett Johansson as Annie Braddock (Why are female movie characters always named Annie, not Ann? I've never known an Ann in my life who likes to be called Annie), a recent college graduate who stumbles into a job as a Nanny for the child of an unhappy, upwardly mobile couple residing on Manhattan's lower east side. The predictable story finds Annie initially hating the position but soon unable to leave because she doesn't want to leave the child alone with his dysfunctional parents. The film suffers from pedestrian direction and a screenplay that tries WAY too hard to be cute and smart, most notably Annie's obnoxious Carrie Bradshaw-like narration that really grates on the nerves. Johansson's lifeless performance in the starring role doesn't help either...the camera loves Johansson but this is performance completely devoid of anything resembling comic timing. Johansson looks embarrassed just being involved in this debacle. The supporting cast is first rate though...Laura Linney's crisp performance as the boy's mother is perfection as is Tony Winner Donna Murphy's turn as Annie's mother and Grammy winner Alicia Keys as Annie's best friend. It cannot be denied that Nicholas Art is adorable as Annie's young charge and hunky Chris Evans is wasted as a romantic interest. It's SEX AND THE CITY meets MARY POPPINS and it just doesn't work.

So many brilliant reviewers have sliced up this appalling mess of a movie that I don't even want to pile on, but I would like to say a few words about Laura Linney.She is so beautiful, so brilliant, so wasted in this movie. The bored, neglected, stunningly beautiful and achingly lonely woman she portrays is a tiresome caricature of a type that is at least 100 years out of date. Edith Wharton wrote about this kind of woman really well, and it's no accident that Laura Linney was a superbly cruel, lovely and convincing Bertha Dorsett in an otherwise forgettable film of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH.So don't watch THE NANNY DIARIES. Go watch Laura Linney in THE HOUSE OF MIRTH instead. Oh, and watch Scarlett Johannsen in VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA. Because that's the movie where she really proves she can look beautiful all the time, even with a wine glass in her hand.