A recent college graduate has a chance encounter with an Upper East Side mother that’s in need of a nanny. Deciding it will be a good experience, she takes the job and finds herself in a world she doesn’t belong in, but doesn’t want to leave.

I think it’s an unwritten rule that every actress must star in a film where they have to handle or raise bad kids. It must be a right of passage for actresses or something. This film would mark Scarlett Johansson’s turn in the role, but by this time, we’ve seen it all before and she doesn’t give us anything new.

It’s not her fault the movie didn’t work. It’s just that the script is a mild rewrite of several other films like UPTOWN GIRLS and STEPMOM. There’s not a whole lot you’re going to be able to do with this genre anymore. Despite that, I think NANNY DIARIES could have at least tried a little harder. As it is, it feels like the filmmakers have already given up on originality and were just going through the motions.

Everyone in the film does a fine job. I liked Paul Giamatti in an unusual role. Linney and Johannson do fine jobs with what they have, but no one really steals the show. Johannson looks really bored and has her typical blank stare through the entire film. Chris Evans and Alicia Keys are nothing more than supporting roles and the little kid isn’t used as much as the previews would have you believe.

The biggest problem with the film is that we’ve all seen it before. If you’re going to rehash a tired storyline, then you have to do something original with it. Unfortunately for these filmmakers, they didn’t do anything unique. Thus, the audience is left with a boring, below average film.

Video: Widescreen (1.78:1): This transfer had a serious problem with black levels. Almost all of the dark scenes had transfer problems and the film quality overall was pretty low.

Audio: English and French 5.1, with English, Spanish and French subtitles: The audio was basic and didn’t have any problems.

Making of Nanny Diaries (16:43): This is your basic making-of featurette. Everyone shows up to talk about the film and give a quick recap of how it became a movie. There’s some decent behind the scenes footage and they keep the movie clips to a minimum. It’s ok, but it’s not long enough to give any decent information.

Confessions from the Original Nannies (22:28): The two ladies that wrote the book the movie is based on show up and talk about the book, film and their own experiences as nannies. It’s an extension of the movie, so if you like the film, you’ll probably get a kick out of this.

Bloopers (4:05): This isn’t too bad as far as blooper reels go. However, there’s like a 30 second shameless introdcution by L’Oreal in the beginning. I’ve never seen a special feature with a sponsor before, but I guess you have to get your money wherever you can.

There are also some Previews

Unless you’re just a die-hard Scarlett Johannson fan, I can’t see any reason to recommend this. It was tough to sit through and I think it probably takes the audience more effor to watch it than it took the filmmakers to make it.