More adventures in babysitting

>> The Nanny Diaries is a surprisingly
enjoyable, if moralizing, comedy

by MARK SLUTSKY

Like last year’s The Devil Wears Prada, The Nanny Diaries is based on a confessional, satirical novel that purports to shed light on the privileged lives of wealthy Manhattan professionals, and the steep cost they pay for their affluent lifestyle, as seen through the eyes of a bright, hot, white girl. Scarlett Johansson plays the role that Anne Hathaway incarnated in Prada, a serious-minded young lady who reluctantly finds herself in a glittering demi-monde above her usual station. Like the earlier movie, The Nanny Diaries serves as a sort of morality tale, as Johansson realizes that she was right all along to be skeptical.

Both movies never do much more than indulge their audience’s happy willingness to feel superior to rich people, but that’s not to say that they don’t have some fun doing it. Prada had Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and the whole fashion world to play with. The Nanny Diaries has to make do with the excesses of the Upper East Side, but writers/directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, the creative forces behind the Harvey Pekar doc American Splendor, bring some of the same kind of genre-blurring storytelling tricks to bear here.

Johansson narrates the film as if it’s an anthropological study of wealthy New Yorkers, who are presented in Museum of Natural History-style dioramas. It’s a cute way to tell a story that isn’t particularly interesting on its own, and along with a couple of other stagey tricks (like how the employers are referred to as “Mr. and Mrs. X”), adds to the movie’s watchability. Plus, there are a few genuine laughs.

Along with the likeable Johansson, the cast is perfectly capable. Laura Linney plays Johansson’s employer, the same kind of dragon lady with cracks in her facade that Meryl Streep played in Prada. Paul Giamatti is her husband; his feelings for his child, who he seems to view as an investment, border between loutish indifference and pride. Chris Evans is the beau hunk who wins Johansson’s heart.

By the end, even the movie’s cute devices can’t help it from turning into a hectoring lecture about parental responsibility, but for the most part, The Nanny Diaries is a surprisingly enjoyable comedy, if hard to take seriously.

The Nanny Diaries opens this
Friday, Aug. 24

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