- Director:
Rob Malenfant - AMG Rating:
- Genre: Thriller
- Movie Type: Psychological Thriller
- Themes: Servants and Employers, Serial Killers, Woman In Jeopardy
- Main Cast: Tracy Nelson, Bruce Boxleitner, Susan Blakely
- Release Year: 2001
- Country: US
- Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Upon her release from a mental institution where she was recovering from a suicide attempt, Andrea McBride (Tracy Nelson) applies for the position of nanny for a handsome, wealthy surgeon, Dr. James Lewis (Bruce Boxleitner), a widower with two children. Another applicant is hired, but she dies in an accident and Andrea gets the job after all, excelling and quickly becoming part of the family. Then Lewis' girlfriend, Dr. Julia Bruning (Susan Blakely), is mysteriously killed. When his boss (Charles Glenn) tells Lewis of impending cutbacks at the hospital, the boss is murdered. Meanwhile, Lewis' teenaged daughter Fawn (Dana Barron) begins piecing together the history of the new nanny and discovers that Andrea may be responsible for these and other killings -- but Fawn had better hurry, because the slayings are getting closer to home.~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Review
Just when you thought the venerable "wolf in sheep's clothing" genre was exhausted -- Fatal Attraction, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, Single White Female -- along comes The Perfect Nanny. The title alone tips viewers off that the nanny isn't perfect, and with a tiny amount of imagination one also knows exactly what each of the plot points(represented by dead bodies) is going to be. That the movie is as entertaining as it is owes a debt to the superlatively creepy performance of Tracy Nelson as the psychotic serial-killing woman who is just a little bit too obsessed with romance novels. Now we've gone and spoiled the mystery -- but no, viewers know who the killer is in the first ten minutes, or from the box artwork, which is the entire point to this exercise in domestic violence. You know who did it; you keep watching to see how she does it and to whom. The Perfect Nanny isn't perfect, but since viewers already know what they're getting into, it's not terrible either.~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
