Uptown Girls

Molly Gunn (Murphy) is the party-hearty daughter of a late rock legend. When Molly's accountant makes off with her inheritance, she's forced to wave farewell to her cushioned Manhattan existence. Latching on to someone else's cushioned Manhattan existence, she becomes nanny to Ray Schleine (Fanning), the precocious eight-year-old daughter of music mogul Roma (Locklear). The feckless adult must learn to be responsible; the over-serious child must learn to lighten up. It took three screenwriters five years to finesse Allison Jacobs' story into a finished film, and it shows. It's not without wit, and it moves forward at a snap. Yet Molly's progression to standing on her own two feet is so schematic that there's no room to give the supporting characters any life. Yakin renders the over-redemptive romanticism with dutiful efficiency, but there are too few wounds left unsalved for the film to be as touching or as funny as it wants to be.