The Devil Wears Dior
posted on Thursday, November 15, 2007 in Movie Reviews
Comparisons to The Devil Wears Prada are inevitable when discussing The Nanny Diaries. A lot of the same elements are there: young girl in search of direction, an unexpected career path, and a completely horrible upper crust boss. The question, of course, is if it’s any better. The answer? Yes and no.
Annie, a young graduate, decides that she isn’t ready to join the corporate world, and tries to search for her identity before committing to a career. While in pursuit of that, she saves a child from a speeding Segway and is offered a job as a nanny by the child’s mother, an affluent Upper East Side wife. The job, of course, is much more than she thought it would be, and Annie has to keep it together as the mother turns out to be a horrible, passive-aggressive employer.
Again, it’s a lot like The Devil Wears Prada. It’s really just a change of setting: instead of the professional world of fashion magazines, Annie’s search for herself occurs in the very domestic apartments of the Upper East Side of New York. Instead of office politics, we get family dynamics. But essentially, it’s still a movie about a young girl who’s made to do ridiculous tasks by an employer who doesn’t really seem to care about anyone’s well-being.
This film does some things better. The entire film is framed as an anthropological report, and it’s an interesting device that adds some real flavor to everything that’s happening. Annie narrates the film in the style of a scientist, treating the residents of the Upper East Side like a foreign tribe, full of strange rituals and inexplicable traits. It can get heavy-handed at times, but it still makes for an intriguing framing device. The filmmaking feels far superior, even when it gets a little gimmicky.
But the film does some things worse, as well. The characters in this film are a lot more simplistic, often hitting just one note and sticking with it. In The Devil Wears Prada, the boss is clearly unjust, but the film makes an effort to show that the choices she made were necessary for her survival, and made no apologies for them. In this film, it’s a little more cut and dry. The boss is wrong. Period. The father in this film, played by Paul Giamatti, may be one of the most predictable, stereotypical characters ever created, and it gets pretty annoying. The Nanny Diaries could have benefitted from some shades of gray, as it arrives at some pretty mundane conclusions.
There’s nothing to complain about in the performances. Laura Linney as Mrs. X, the evil boss, is fabulous despite the limitations of the role. She portrays a depth that betrays the simple black and white structure of her character arc. Scarlett Johanssen is fine in the lead role, though she isn’t particularly exciting. Chris Evans is great, even though he isn’t given much to do. He’s just there to look good and be charming, and he does that pretty well.
So in the end, what we've got is a film that's a lot like The Devil Wears Prada, except with a little better filmmaking, about the same level of acting, but a far worse, paint-by-numbers story. While it's pretty good on its own, proximity to the prior movie just makes it seem really mediocre.
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