The director Boaz Yakin started his film career with the impressive Fresh way back in 1994. He's only made three films since, the most recent of which is Uptown Girls, a film about as far away from Fresh as you could get.
The uptown girls are two princesses in ivory towers. Molly, Brittany Murphy, a rich orphan, her father was a famous rock star. She lives a chaotic, hedonistic life with her pet pig and a collection of daddy's guitars. She thinks fine Egyptian sheets are the most important thing in the world in bed, and they prove pretty seductive when she beds a young Aussie pop musician, Jesse Spencer, whom she met at her 22nd birthday party. Molly's world falls apart when her business manager runs off with her fortune and she?s left with nothing, just a best friend, Marley Shelton, who puts her up and helps find her a job as nanny to another princess, 8 year old Ray, Dakota Fanning, a neglected arrogant rich kid who acts much older than her years.
There's an odd tone to Uptown Girls which stops it being predictably cloying and yet it also stops it from being likeable. It's strange. Neither of the two protagonists has charm even though Molly, and the filmmakers obviously, thinks she has. Young Dakota Fanning who impressed some audiences in I am Sam delivers a competent but non-winning performance. Interestingly there are some terrific ingredients in the film, Michael Ballhaus shot it for example, but somehow the whole is more a miss than a hit.
