Uptown Girls

Directed by Boaz Yakin, Uptown Girls follows spoiled heiress Molly Gunn (Brittany Murphy) as she reluctantly takes on a job as a nanny for a high-strung eight year old (Dakota Fanning’s Ray) after she loses all her money. It’s a rather familiar premise that’s generally employed to watchable effect by filmmaker Yakin, as the movie, which runs an appropriately brisk 92 minutes, benefits substantially from a thoroughly charming lead performance by Murphy – with the actress’ strong work here effectively elevating the sporadically hackneyed material on an ongoing basis. There’s little doubt, as well, that Uptown Girls‘ watchable atmosphere is due in no small part to the chemistry between Murphy and Fanning, and it’s certainly surprising to note that some late-in-the-game sequences manage to pack a bit of an emotional punch. And while there’s never a point at which one doesn’t see the picture’s various plot points coming from miles away, Uptown Girls ultimately does manage to secure its place as a relatively painless little comedy that could’ve been a whole lot worse.

**1/2 out of ****