The Nanny Diaries tells the story of the emotional and humorous journey of Annie Braddock (Scarlett Johansson), a young woman from a working-class neighborhood in New Jersey, struggling to understand her place in the world. Fresh out of college, she gets tremendous pressure from her nurse mother to find a respectable position in the business world although Annie would prefer to trade in her blackberry for an anthropologist's field diary. Through a serendipitous meeting, Annie ends up in the elite and ritualistic culture of Manhattan's Upper East Side -- as remote from Annie's suburban New Jersey upbringing as life in an Amazon tribal village. Choosing to duck out of real life, Annie accepts the position as a nanny for a wealthy family, referred to as simply "the X's." She quickly learns that life is not very rosy on the other side of the tax bracket, as she must cater to the every whim of Mrs. X (Laura Linney) and her precocious son Grayer, while attempting to avoid the formidable Mr. X (Paul Giamatti). Life becomes even more complicated when Annie falls for a Park Avenue guy (Chris Evans), and she's forced to explore her identity as never before.
I had read the book for this movie and had really liked it due to my experience working in day care. It really captures that whole absent parent thing incredibly well. This movie was basically Devil Wears Prada meets day care. At one point, I even noticed one of the extras reading a copy of Devil Wears Prada. Weird. Anywho - I enjoyed this movie. I loved the narration throughout the movie and the way that they were comparing society to exhibits in a museum was great. Laura Linney is awesome as always and this was one of Johansson's better roles I think.
I would recommend checking this movie out. As the summer winds down, this will probably be one of the more enjoyable movies out there as the studios bombard us with a bunch of rancid turds.
