"The Nanny Diaries" queries modern lifestyles

The story of a nanny, a seeming chic-flick, actually provides a social commentary on modern lifestyles with emphasis on how work and society affect personal relationships.

Annie, the protagonist, is looking for a career and after a chance event, decides to become 'Annie the nanny'. But she has to craft a web of lies to prevent her mother from learning of her off-beat decision, as her mother wishes her to be a corporate giant instead.

Annie's young charge, Grayer, is a boy from a wealthy family, though their wealth is strictly material. Both Annie and Grayer live under the roof of parents so caught up with work and their own issues that our young friend is left quite alone with Annie. As a result, Annie forsakes time with her friends, family and a 'Harvard hottie' to take care of Grayer, though gratitude from his parents isn't exactly forthcoming.

Grayer is such a neglected the boy: even when he is seriously ill his mother continues her spa retreat, leaving Annie to care for her son. It is no surprise that when the boy is scared by miming clowns, he runs to loving Annie and not his mother. This perhaps is a sign of the times, considering how many families today 'surrogate' motherhood to their live-in nannies, or 'maids' as we call them here.

Despite the neglect, Grayer's parents -- like Annie's -- have great expectations of him. His parents want to send him to an elite school, but he must pick up French first. So his mother gets Annie to tutor him in French and goes so far to instruct her to cook French food so that he will learn to appreciate French culture.

Annie is also subject to similar expectations from her own mother, who wants her to climb the corporate ladder of a large firm, whose logo is a red umbrella (no relation to Singtel).

This kind of upbringing is futile as both sets of parents, especially Grayer's, come to realise that their children are not on an assembly line for making 'successful' individuals. The emptiness of such a childhood is made explicit when 'Harvard hottie', who was raised in circumstances similar to the boy's, confesses that his own affluent childhood was a miserable one.

"Diaries" also considers the theme of love: romantic, platonic and parental. The romance here involves the boy's parents as well as between Annie and her 'Harvard hottie'. The former sees their marriage crumbling with broken promises due to work commitments and the frequent quarrels between both -- the boy hears everything -- showcase how there is also a certain type of poverty in opulent affluence. Indeed, the modern situation leaves such a story too commonly heard.

'Harvard hottie' and Annie experience some problems in their relationship as well for another reason. Ironically, Annie displays greater affection for her charge than his parents do, and her parental love is what keeps her from pursuing her romance. To the boy's mother, it is 'no-no' for Nanny to have a honey, and the previous nanny was sacked precisely because of her romantic involvement. However Annie knows that Grayer has become attached to her and if she leaves, his already broken heart would receive yet another blow from yet another nanny/adult betrayal. This she will not have, and so continues to care for the boy in spite of 'Harvard hottie's' chagrin. Here we see how Annie's parental love compromises romantic love, and this same parental love is what betrays her mother's affections as well.

Up to this point, Annie's mother has been deceived into believing that Annie was doing well in a high-profile firm. When she learns the truth, the pain is palpable. She confesses that throughout her life, she worked so that Annie could go to college and get a well-paying career, and is thus shattered when she discovers her bright young daughter has become a nanny. The difference between Annie and her mother is hard to reconcile as Annie has gone on to pursue her interest in people (her major in college was Anthropology) while her well-intentioned mother has a more cold, pragmatic view of the world.

There are many personal conflicts in this movie that we, living in this modern age, can easily identify with. "Diaries" offers ample food for thought about the human condition and the contemporary paradigm, and what it is that will bring us lasting happiness in life.

By Ben Low