Le ragazze dei quartieri alti

Just rewatched this classic. Brittany Murphy was so pretty. I miss her so much.

This just goes to show you that you shouldn't go into movies with preconceptions, because I went in expecting (hoping, even) to hate this movie, and did for a while, but somewhere along the way it started working on me, and by the end I was practically eating out of its hand.

Molly Gunn (Brittany Murphy) is the rich, immature, hard-partying daughter of a deceased rock star, but when she loses all her money and belongings, she has to take a job as the nanny to a rich little girl named Ray (Dakota Fanning). Ray is very young, but acts like an uptight 45 year-old woman, because she's been ignored by her cold, socialite mother (a "Melrose Place"-ish Heather Locklear).

Both of these characters, but especially little Ray, are entirely fantasy creations. I don't care how self-sufficient she's had to be, no single-digit kid is going to act like this all the time and speak this kind of dialogue.

What makes the movie work is the actors. Murphy is a very likeable actress and with her mixture of raspy sexuality and innocent flakiness, I can't think of anyone who would have been better playing this spoiled rock princess.

And as Ray, Dakota Fanning once again shows that she is one of the absolute best child actors out there. This is the third time in a row she's been the best part of the movie she's in (the other two being the irritating "I Am Sam" and the downright hideous "Trapped"). Once her character begins to lighten up in the second half of the film, her performance really takes off.

So the story is very predictable, the dialogue often weak, and I hated the character of Molly's on-again, off-again "rock star" boyfriend (who inexplicably makes it big with a horrifyingly bad song about Egyptian cotton), but the characters played by Murphy and Fanning are a pleasure to spend time with, and that's what sold it to me.

As other reviewers have suggested, "Uptown Girls" is a hard film to classify: it's not a "comedy," per se, because it isn't funny (and barely even seems to try), but it also isn't particularly dramatic (though there are dramatic elements). I'm reminded of a term I've heard critics use a number of times -- "charmer" -- but only now do I realize how necessary it is to their lexicon. This film's greatest ambition, it seems, is to make its audience smile - and, as far as that goes, it succeeds. I may not have laughed at all for the whole ninety minutes (though I probably did), and I wasn't very moved; but, oh boy, did I smile a lot. Very few movies accomplish even that, so I'm forced to give "Uptown Girls" a strong recommendation.

This film is about an uptight child who wants to play everything by the rules, and her interaction with her young caretaker who is playfully childish.

Dakota Fanning is an amazing child actress. The arrogant and cocky faces she managed to pull was in itself an achievement! No wonder she subsequently got so many major roles.

The backing music was good, I liked the songs a lot. The plot itself is quite predictable, but it is still fun to watch. It did bring a smile on my face and kept me interested in the film. This is a good brain-off film for the evening.

As I say over and over again, a film doesn't have to be a work of art (that few even understand) to be a film. The keyword here is entertainment. And I thought this film was entertaining, not be confused with a work of art, or anything with a higher meaning. I could lean back and just enjoy watching the two characters change.

I thought, when I saw what a low rating it had gotten here on IMDb, that it would really stink. But the story did appeal to me. I'm glad I watched it - I give it a 7/10, just because I enjoyed watching it. So my advice: watch it, but as usual, don't expect Oscar material.