The Nanny Diaries

Having recently graduated from the New Cork University, young Annie Braddock is looking for a job.

She is hoping to find a job as a babysitter and so she puts an add in a newspaper. Luckily for her, a stroke of luck happens and she goes to an interview with Mrs. X and Mr. X, a rich couple in desperate need of a trustworthy person to take care of their 4 year old son, Grayer.

Annie is just another simple working class girl from New Jersey, where her mother dreams that her daughter will become a highly respected business woman.

Unfortunately, she is not attracted to economy and she decides to study anthropology and suddenly, the perspective of working for the high society families seems like a good alternative.

Annie has experience as a baby sitter, but she has no idea what is waiting for her in Mrs. X’s house; the latter turns out to be a total shrew and for the next 9 months Annie will be forced to face the nasty couple, their marriage problems, their son and a new relationship.

Release Date: 9 November 2007 (Romania)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Donna Murphy, John Henry Cox, Alicia Keys, Nicholas Art

Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

A London midwife gets caught up, without her will, in the middle of a Russian human trafficking network.

A young Russian unidentified girl was taken to the hospital she works in and Anna had to deliver her baby; unfortunately, the mother did not make it, but she left behind a diary that Anna feels drawn to, as she wants to find the baby’s family.

She starts looking through it and she sees the name and address of a local restaurant. When she gets there, she is greeted by the owner, Semyon, who says he will translate the diary for her into English.

Reading it, he realizes it contains evidence that could get his son Kirill into jail and he warns Anna about that.

As things evolve and more of the truth comes out, Anna has reasons to believe that Semyon’s son and an aspiring Russian mobster have the intention of hurting the baby….and there is nobody who can defend it but her….

Release Date: 14 September 2007

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack, Naomi Watts, Jerzy Skolimowski

Director: David Cronenberg

L'enfant

Bruno and Sonia are a couple who have to do whatever it takes to survive and provide a home and food for their newborn son.

Bruno usually gets his money out of all types of schemes and probably illegal ‘businesses’.
One day he is left to take care of his son, and he sees that as a very good business opportunity; he sells the baby for a very large amount of money.

Due to the shock, Sonia has to be hospitalized and he then realizes what he had done; he tries getting his son back and Sonia’s love, but it will be harder than he thought.

The film tells the story of low-life people, but in no way it tries to explain why and how they got that way. It simply takes us there, maybe with the intention of causing a stronger effect.

All in all, it is not a very captivating hour and a half, and the ending is quite predictable as well.

Release Date: 24 March 2006

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Cast: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François, Jérémie Segard, Fabrizio Rongione, Olivier Gourmet, Anne Gerard, Bernard Marbaix, Jean-Claude Boniverd

Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Baby Mama

Just like many modern women, Kate Holbrook is a brilliant single business woman who has always put her professional life in front of her personal one.

She has just turned 37 and has decided it is time to have a baby; unfortunately for her she only has one chance in a million to get pregnant.

Kate is not willing to give up and convinces Angie Ostrowiski, a working class girl from Philadelphia, to be the ‘temporary’ mother of her child.

It seems simple, but it isn’t …. Soon after she finds out that Angie is pregnant, Kate seems to fall under a spell, she gets extremely enthusiastic about it, she is continuously reading some book about raising children, she redecorates her apartment and makes it baby-proof and already starts asking about the best schools.

Things get even more complicated when the ‘Baby Mama’ shows up on her doorstep saying that she has no other place to go….so Kate takes her in and tries to turn her into the perfect pregnant woman.

The 9 month wait soon turns into a very funny confrontation, but in between this whole war, they will discover there are two types of families: the one you are born into and the one you are raised into.

Release Date: 25 April 2008

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Cast: Amy Poelher, Tina Fey, Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Steve Martin

Director: Michael McCullers