Uptown Girls
Director: Boaz Yakin
Writer: Julie Margaret Hogben, Mo Ogrodnik, Lisa Davidowitz
Cast: Brittany Murphy, Dakota Fanning, Marley Shelton, Donald Faison, Jesse Spencer, Austin Pendleton, Heather Locklear, Fisher Stevens
Seen on: 2.3.2026

Plot:
Molly (Brittany Murphy) is nominally an adult, but a lot of money and a carefree attitude have kept her from having to grow up too much. But when her money suddenly runs out, she finds herself needing a job. She starts working as a nanny for 8-year old Ray (Dakota Fanning) who was able to get rid of any and all nannies presented her so far. As Ray’s quasi-adult behavior and Molly’s immaturity clash, both start to learn things.

Uptown Girls mostly drew me in because of Brittany Murphy, and it is a surprisingly sweet, albeit a little too tropey film.

Uptown Girls is the kind of film where you can see pretty much every beat coming a mile off, with the exception maybe of the lack of focus on romance. Other than that, though, you look at the set-up and you know the ending and more or less how it will get there. There is something to be said for this kind of predictability, especially when it is coupled with a lot of charm, but it does make me wonder what the film could have been if it had taken a little more risks. Every once in a while it deviates from the playbook, and it is at its best then.

That being said, it has charm in spades, and the really very contrived set-up is part of that charm. The much bigger part, though, is Murphy whose screen presence is always magnetic and who simply has a knack for the kind of embarassing-funny moments while never losing sight of her character’s personhood. Her chemistry with Dakota Fanning is also really good, though the latter never quite feels as natural as Murphy. But she is also only a child and her role is meant to be very stiff, so let’s not put too much on her.

The movie allows Molly and Ray to share in some very real grief, despite all sense of light comedy otherwise, and that is really sweet, too. I generally appreciated that the film is about their relationship with each other. They both learn from each other, but ultimately, Molly needs to grow up on her own – and stand up for herself – to be a better friend to Ray.

With Murphy in the lead, the movie manages to feel much fresher than I would have expected. It is certainly an entertaining 90 minutes, though I wouldn’t have wanted it to be longer than that.

Summarizing: cute.