Nanny ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ | Movie Review

Synopsis

Immigrant nanny Aisha, piecing together a new life in New York City while caring for the child of an Upper East Side family, is forced to confront a concealed truth that threatens to shatter her precarious American Dream.

Directed by Nikyatu Jusu

Written by Nikyatu Jusu and Aditya Agnihotri (Hindi dialogue translator)

Starring Anna Diop and Michelle Monaghan

Coming soon to Prime

When going through the listings for LFF, I prepare for many reworkings. First, I go through and read the synopsis, this year I coloured the spreadsheet green for must see and orange for "looks good if there’s a gap". If things fit together then great, put your feet up and relax. If they don’t, go back and read more about the films, cast is usually my first stop, followed by the companies involved. Nanny would have made it through the cut at each stage.

Aisha longs to bring her son over to the States from Senegal. She’s secured herself a well paying job as a nanny for an upscale couple, looking after their daughter Rose and doing bits around their home. She pushes aside the initial oddities, but soon things escalate and the job begins to take hold of Aisha in ways she couldn’t imagine.

I’d seen this listed as a horror, but you should definitely go in with the expectation of thriller and drama. There was one scene that got my heart racing, which most of the screen verbally reacted to, but the other moments of “horror” generally didn’t have that added punch to them to scare.

Anna Diop gives a stunning performance in the lead role of Aisha. The emotions, the way she interacted with other characters, everything seemed to be the perfect level for the scene. She also manages to hold the film together at points where it feels like it could have completely fallen off the rails.

The family in this were probably the letdown for me, they felt very much like a misdirection. Monaghan's acting showed Amy's erratic side and household dynamics well, but that part of the storyline felt unfinished, like maybe the story had been changed at some point to go in a completely different direction.

Visually Nanny is stunning, the colours and use of light were fantastic to see on the big screen. The ominous growth of the darkness in scenes was on the cusp of being amazing, but if you're trying to put something in the horror genre, there were definitely things that could have been amplified. Elevating those moments might have been a missing piece to the puzzle.

I wish I had known more going in. Folklore is used to great effect throughout (I was much less comfortable during the Anansi portions though, definite trigger warning on spiders!), but I don’t think I knew enough about those tales to get the most out of them in the plot. A bit more research and a second viewing will be on the cards.

Overall I enjoyed Nanny and I’m sure there is more to get out of it. i know my brain will be ticking over trying to work out the things that were left unsaid. 

What you should do

This is coming to Prime as it’s an Amazon Studios production, but it appears it may also have a small cinema release next month. If it piques your interest then it’s definitely worth a watch.

Movie thing you wish you could take home

Difficult to say… luxury apartment? Anna Diop’s ability to look amazing in anything? I can’t decide.