Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Nanny Diaries (2007) - Johansson and co-stars elevate Berman & Pulcini fluff

11/21/2021

The Nanny Diaries (2007) - Johansson and co-stars elevate Berman & Pulcini fluff

♥♥♥

Scarlett Johansson and a boy look wronged, wearing party hats, on this cute poster for Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini's The Nanny Diaries

Annie is a newly minted bachelor student with New York at her feet, but the possibilities prove too overwhelming, and so she takes on a year as a nanny for a well-off Upper East Side family. And who does she meet in their building but a charming young fella...

The Nanny Diaries is written and directed by married master New-Yorker filmmakers Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini (American Splendor (2003)), whose 2nd film it is. It is an adaptation of the same-titled 2002 novel by Emma McLaughlin (The First Affair (2013)) and Nicola Kraus (Over You (2012)).

Basically too cutesy, The Nanny Diaries also wears the leg iron that our deeply privileged white protagonist's challenge in the film is her well-paid job for the rich New York family. - Hardly 'about life at the top, as seen from the bottom', as the tag-line above suggests.

The plot is served as soft sweetness and a pronounced women's picture. It is nevertheless salvaged by Scarlett Johansson's (The Avengers (2012)) own personal sweetness, a wonderful boy (Nicholas Art (Knight and Day (2010))) as her charge, who manages to be both a pain in the ass and lovable; and Laura Linney (The Details (2011)) and Paul Giamatti (The Last Station (2009)) as the fairly intolerable parents. There's excessive use of voice-over but pretty shots of New York here. The Nanny Diaries is not a great film, but it is highly pleasing company.

Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini: Girl Most Likely/Imogene (2012) - Wiig is great as another dysfunctional woman in Berman & Pulcini's unfocused fare
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Top 10: Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

The Extra Man (2010) - One of the year's best films is this overlooked comedy gem

American Splendor (2003) or, Happily Unhappy Together

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 20 mil. $

Box office: 47.8 mil. $

= Minor flop (returned 2.39 times its cost)

[The Nanny Diaries was released 24 August (North America) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place from April 2006 - ? in New York, New Jersey and Toronto, Ontario. The film opened #6 to a 7.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it since declined, grossing 25.9 mil. $ (54.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 3.5 mil. $ (7.3 %) and South Korea with 3.4 mil. $ (7.1 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. The-Numbers.com estimate that the film made an additional 38.4 mil. $ on the home video market. Berman & Pulcini returned with The Extra Man (2010). Johansson returned in Will.i.am: Yes We Can (2008, music video) and theatrically in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008). The Nanny Diaries is rotten at 34 % with a 5.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Nanny Diaries?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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11/21/2021

The Nanny Diaries (2007) - Johansson and co-stars elevate Berman & Pulcini fluff

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