Bookish girl gets a new job and a glimpse into a glamorous but cut-throat world - sound familiar?
This comedy is certainly going for the Devil Wears Prada market - it’s even based on a novel by two former nannies. Scarlett Johansson plays accidental child carer Annie, who starts working for rich New Yorkers Mr and Mrs ‘X’ (Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney). The kid’s cute, but the parents are a nightmare, so Annie has various comical struggles trying to live up to their increasingly outrageous demands.
Linney is superb, but Johansson doesn’t quite work the girl-next-door thing, and Chris Evans has Token Love Interest written all over him. Fanciful Mary Poppins references clash with the true-life tone, too. It's a pleasant, fitfully amusing watch, but neither screamingly funny nor emotionally rewarding.