The Nanny Diaries (tbc)

Doing for childcare what The Devil Wears Prada did for couture, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s American Splendor follow-up stars Scarlett Johansson as Annie, a college grad forced to match wits with high-maintenance Manhattan mommy ‘Mrs X’ (Laura Linney) when she’s hired as a nanny for her precocious son (Nicholas Art). The makers continue to flex their formal flair (take the magic-realist winks to Mary Poppins) without swamping their leading ladies. Linney is a beautifully brittle bitch-on-wheels, while Chris Evans’ ‘Harvard Hottie’ is no distraction from the film’s real love story between Annie and her charge. The sentimentality doesn’t cloy, while the satire’s sharp enough to make this more than another pat Hollywood finger-wag at parents who don’t spend proper time with the kids.

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