The Nanny Diaries

Scarlett Johansson takes on the role of the unlikely nanny in "The Nanny Diaries", playing Annie, a recent college grad who doesn't really know what to do with her life and flakes on her job interview (don't these people interview before they graduate from college?). In a quick series of unintended circumstances, Annie becomes a nanny to a young boy who has a rich and unattentive father, and a mother with control issue and lacks a mothering instinct.

Laura Linney plays the mother, and I think the reason why this film isn't all that watchable is because the character of the mother is simply too strident of a character, tough to accept her mothering deficiencies on display in the film, and Annie has to adjust quickly to all of the deficiencies in order to keep the nanny job, a job she's all at once over-qualified and under-qualified for such responsibilities.

So, in the end, the film failed to engage me on a higher level, but it does have a bittersweet ending in some ways that doesn't necessary ring false, but doesn't impress, either.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.