The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries (Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Chris Evans) – What a colossal waste of talent!  If I had seen this cast listed, I would have guaranteed you that this would be both a hit and a well-acted movie.  It’s not.  What a mess!!  Stereotyped rich mom (Linney)) living in a stereotyped loveless marriage with a stereotyped cheating, high-society husband (Giamatti) and a stereotyped lovable child (Nicholas Reese Art) hires a stereotyped new college grad (Johansson) who isn’t sure what she really wants to do with her life.  Wonder what’s going to happen?  Mom treats nanny like crap; husband treats wife like crap; nanny showers love on kid.  What is this missing?  Oh yes, a love interest for Miss Scarlett in the form of a stereotyped, well-grounded rich kid (Evans from Cellular and The Fantastic Four)) with a difficult past who just happens upon the nanny and immediately falls in love despite the fact that young Miss Scarlett spends almost all of the movie looking as ugly and plain as you can make her.  The directors/writers (Sheri Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who brought you American Splendor) and hair stylists ought to be shot for what they did to the young ingénue.   The talented Linney barely shows the layers she is capable of and don’t even get me started about the hole in which Berman/Pulcini threw Giamatti.  I have decided that Johansson peaked with Lost in Translation and, somewhere in her handler’s attempt to make her Renee Zellweger, allowed her to be miscast in almost every part she has taken (with the exception of Scoop, where she was guided by Woody Allen).  The women with me at the movie thought it was “cute” for reasons I can’t fathom but God love them.  This is one of the worst movies of the year, particularly given the cast.  I will never see a movie directed by this pair again.