I liked The Nanny Diaries in spite of myself. My first impression was that it looked like a glossy, superficial, predictable, second-rate The Devil Wears Prada. Ok it sort of is all of that, but with a little more depth and charm than you might expect. It's tolerable, even heartwarming, thanks to a down-to-earth performance by Scarlett Johansson, an icy-yet-vulnerable Laura Linney, and a sad, sweet little boy.

I enjoy Johansson best when she's playing "normal girl" roles. To me she really shined in In Good Company where she played a real, unpretentious character that was relatable to the average young woman. In The Nanny Diaries, she plays someone similar. Annie's from a working-class New Jersey background. She starts off as a directionless college grad who would much rather do what she loves than make a lot of money in the corporate world (I've definitely been there!). Her passion is anthropology"”watching other people and how they interact. When she spontaneously accepts a job as a nanny for an upscale Manhattan family, she views it as a dual opportunity to not only work but to observe social habits much different from her own. And in fact the movie is structured like an anthropological thesis, with Annie narrating her various findings and conclusions. For the purpose of her study she dubs the parents of this case study Mr. and Mrs. X.

Linney is the fussy Mrs. X. She is uptight, self-involved, and although she doesn't have a job, she still manages to be too busy for her 6-year-old son Grayer (Nicholas Art). But rather than make her the one-sided villain, Linney shows glimpses into Mrs. X's own humiliation and pain. Even Annie notices and feels sorry for her. For one thing, Mr. X (a barely seen Paul Giamatti) is an adulterous pig and the only character with no redeeming qualities.

Though the commercials made the film out to be a The Devil Wears Prada for the babysitter set, the movie is decidedly less about the demanding aspects of the job and more of a sad portrait of dysfunctional family life. It reveals a class of people who have no time to raise children, but have them anyway"”selfish, workaholic parents and their attention-starved kids. It also shows the complicated relationship between a child and his/her nanny. It's not as simple as being a babysitter, the child gets attached and the nanny gets emotionally involved as well. I was expecting Grayer to be the stereotypical bratty, obnoxious child, but he's only difficult in the beginning because he's neglected. It's quite heartbreaking to see him vie for the affections of his distant father (he carries around one of his dad's crumpled business cards to feel close to him) or call out for