Common Sense Media

Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving the entertainment lives of families, provides reviews of the latest movies from a parenting perspective. For more reviews, click on www.commonsensemedia.org.

’The Nanny Diaries’

Rating: PG-13

Common Sense Media: Pause. For ages 13 and older.

..(out of five stars)

Running time: 105 minutes

Common Sense review: For new college graduate Annie (Scarlett Johansson), an accidental meeting in Central Park leads to a job as a nanny for Upper East Side denizen Mrs. X (Laura Linney) in “The Nanny Diaries.” Because Annie’s mother wants her to be a corporate chief executive, she lies about her move to the city, saying she has a job with a finance firm. However, she’s really living in a teeny room next to the laundry area, picking up Mr. X’s (Paul Giamatti) dry cleaning and picking up her 6-year-old charge, Grayer (Nicholas Art), from school each afternoon. Annie confides in her best friend, Lynette (Alicia Keys), that she’s appalled by Mrs. X’s seemingly selfish negligence of her son.

It’s not as if Annie knows exactly what she’s doing, but she does discover a sense of mission, imagining herself as a newfangled “Mary Poppins,” complete with flying umbrella and a profound dedication to Grayer’s welfare. It’s not long before Annie sees that wealthy Mrs. X is actually very unhappy.

In other words, “The Nanny Diaries” has very little new to say. Instead, it provides Annie with shaky moral high ground: She’ll have to learn some lessons (lying to your mother is bad) and also find true love with the Harvard hottie (Chris Evans) who just happens to live upstairs from the Xes.

Perhaps most frustrating is the movie’s focus on beleaguered women, which doesn’t lead to any sense of “freedom” — despite the fact that George Michael’s song by that name pipes up on the soundtrack a couple of times.

Common Sense note: Parents need to know that although teens might love Miss Johansson, this movie is about nannies and employee-employer relations — hardly a big topic for the average 13-year-old. Many parents are presented as overprivileged, immature prima donnas. The strain between the central “bad” parent (an upper-class New Yorker) and her less-upper-crust nanny leads to some sad, tense scenes featuring a young boy as well as some frank discussion of parenting goals and strategies.

Families can talk about the movie’s main conflict: Why does Annie think Mrs. X is a bad parent? Do you agree with her? Why or why not? What makes someone a “good” or “bad” mom or dad? Is it different in real life from in movies and on TV? How? Do you think Mrs. X thinks she’s a good mom? What is Annie’s role in the X family? How does she see herself compared to how the Xes see her?

Sexual content: Annie’s thong is visible when Grayer pulls down her pants, and her cleavage is highly visible when she wears a Betsy Ross costume for the Fourth of July. Mr. X is seen by his son in midfondle with a co-worker; the older man later makes a grab at Annie’s bottom.

Language alert: At least one use of an extreme expletive and several instances of milder ones.

Social-behavior alert: Family members lie to one another, and class differences lead to tension and judgment. The Xes aren’t involved, emotionally connected parents.

Drug/alcohol/tobacco alert: An anonymous nanny smokes a cigarette; some social drinking. In one scene, Annie deliberately gets drunk.