Review : The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries (drama)
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Chris Evans
Direction: Shari Springer Berman


IF you loved The Devil Wears Prada , rest assured, you will like this one. Because both the films follow the same storyline. They view the lives of the She-Devils (the super-rich, supposedly insensitive, high-society miss) through the wide-eyed innocence of young, working class girls. And come up with similar conclusions: The b***hes aren't really bad; the devil wears Prada and a heart on its sleeve too!

College grad Scarlett Johansson faces her first interview question: So who are you? That's an easy one, she smiles and begins to answer it. But hey, what's this, she stammers, stutters and realises she doesn't know who she is. She walks out of the interview and sits in Central Park, wondering what comes next. Abracadabra! She saves a boisterous kid and ends up as a nanny in a swanky Manhattan house, taking time-off to discover who she really is. Isn't an easy search, specially when her employer (Laura Linney) is the perfect boss -- absolutely and irrationally demanding. And the family is a completely dysfunctional one with a husband who likes to get touch-feely with the hot nanny.

Add to this, a rich neighbour who likes to send her roses and a mother who likes to see her daughter in power suits instead of a domestic help and you have some nice dramatic tension to rev up the show. Johansson tries hard to don the plain Jane look, but can't keep the cute-cool girl away for long. Quite natty, this little nanny.