Illegal Tender

Wanda De Jesus stars in a strong performance as a smart South Bronx girl whose boyfriend is shot dead the day she gives birth. She wisely invested his profits, 20 years later is wealthy, and tries to hide herself and her family in the suburbs, but the past comes calling. Rick Gonzalez co-stars as her son, who grows from Joe College into a man who vows to “end all this,” in a mixture of melodrama and revenge tragedy. Written and directed by Franc Reyes (“Empire”). Rated R for violence, language and some sexuality. HH1/2 – Roger Ebert

The Nanny Diaries

“The Nanny Diaries,” perhaps better titled “The Bonfire of the Nannies,” is told from the point of view of a bright college graduate who is accidentally hired as a nanny by a rich Manhattan family.  Having studied both anthropology and child development at NYU, she is ideally prepared to study both the X family and its issue, the 5-year-old Grayer X, and the movie is presented like the results of a research study. 

It begins, indeed, with its best scene, as Nanny (Scarlett Johansson) visits the Museum of Natural History and explains the dioramas showing lifelike models of Upper East Side natives seen in their natural habitats.  One such exhibit comes to life: The X’s. Mrs. X (Laura Linney), having paid her dues by giving birth, now depends on money to see her through the caregiving stage.  Mr. X (Paul Giamatti) is a workaholic toiler in the money fields, who is having an affair, which allows his wife to free up valuable shopping time.  And Little Grayer has inherited the ingrained traits of his parents; he is acquisitive, aggressive, deceptive and demanding.  Also a sad little boy. 

Nanny, whose real name is Annie, got the job by saving the life of Grayer after he wandered away from his mom in Central Park.  Annie says she is “Annie,” Mrs. X hears “Nanny,” and concludes that Annie is a nanny, assuming that Nanny is both a job description and a given name. 

The movie is adapted from a best-seller, unread by me, written by real-life NYU grads and sometime nannies Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, and rumored to be based on some of their field observations.  Through the eyes of Nanny, we see the rules governing dress, fashion, business, entertainment and conspicuous consumption in the same world that was memorably X-rayed by Tom Wolfe in “The Bonfire of the Vanities.” 

It was Anne-Marie Bigot de Cornuel, sometime mistress to Louis XIV, who observed, “No man is a hero to his valet.”  She might also have said, “No woman is a heroine to her nanny,” if only “nanny” were a French word, which, like so many words, it is not.  Nanny sees Mrs. X as a materialistic, spoiled creature who ignores her husband’s infidelities because she has no desire to be divorced from her lifestyle, and besides, who would demand exclusive rights to the unpleasant Mr. X anyway? 

What we see of her, however, is more complex.  Mrs. X is both monster and victim, who went swimming among the wealthy and got swept away by the undertow.  She’s consuming as fast as she can, but has few resources to spend on little Grayer.  Nor, Nanny discovers, is it much fun working for her.  Assigned a room resembling a monk’s cell, she is expected to be an all-purpose house cleaner, errand runner and scapegoat for any failings of the perfect Grayer.  Her life is so cloistered that she has only three contacts: her mom, a New Jersey nurse (Donna Murphy), her best friend, Lynette (Alicia Keys), and a guy living upstairs whom she calls Harvard Hottie (Chris Evans).  Having been driven to nannying by uncertainty about who she “really is,” she is at least now certain she’s really not a nanny. 

The plot develops a few problems familiar to anyone who watches TV and employs the Occupation Specified Rule (whenever the occupation of a minor character is specified, that occupation will become necessary in the plot).  Laura Linney engages our sympathy more than Mrs. X really deserves, and Johansson has a kind of secret wit about her in certain roles that makes her seem in on the joke.  HH1/2 – RE

September Dawn

Tells its own version of the Mountain Meadows Massacre when a group of Mormons slaughtered a wagon train of about 120 settlers passing through Utah on Sept. 11, 1857 (a date that much is made of). Is the movie anti-Mormon or an allegory about the modern 9/11? Take your choice; it’s a nasty business. The Mormons don’t deserve it, and neither do we. Rated R for violence. No stars – RE

War

Jet Li and Jason Statham want to kick and punch each other while cracking humorous one-liners. Rated R for violence, language and nudity. – Bill White