Uptown Girls (2003)

Back on December 20th 2009, I was shocked and saddened to learn about the death of actress Brittany Murphy. I remembered when she was the plump, but loveable Tai in Clueless, B-Rabbit’s duplicitous girlfriend in 8 Mile, and one of the dangerous femmes of Sin City. I don’t think I ever realized what a fan I was until after her untimely death, but, upon reflection, many of her roles were notoriously memorable. I decided to check out some of her movies I’d missed and came across Uptown Girls on DVD. It stars Murphy alongside the incomparable Dakota Fanning.

Uptown Girls is a riches-to-rags story about the insatiable and spoiled Molly Gunn (Murphy), who loses her wealth through a swindling accountant and must enter the labor force for the first time in her life. After failing in retail, she lands a nanny job caring for the young, wealthy, but ice-blooded Ray (in a remarkable performance by Dakota Fanning). Their relationship begins with forty miles of bad road, but they soon bond and eventually forge a sisterhood. It’s not the kind of story that blows one away with originality. It’s the same thing that happens in movies like Driving Miss Daisy, Remember The Titans, and even Enemy Mine. Once the initial resistance is disposed, the floodgates of emotion open up and it becomes a buddy movie where both learn from one another by the end credits.

Boaz Yakin directed this movie. He did a great film back in 1994 that I really love and recommend to people all the time called Fresh (produced by Tarantino’s point man, Lawrence Bender). In that film, Yakin was able to get great performances out his child actors and he does so here tenfold with Fanning. Her portrayal of Ray is quite spectacular. If someone ever told her along the way “You are a broken Barbie Doll in this story” she played it with just the right kind of cold, biting cynicism that epitomized the character. Murphy was equally brilliant and really puts her range on full display here. Molly feels like a real person, like that neurotic girl we know that can never get her act together and worries more about her social life than a career. The tear-jerking scene at Coney Island near the end is just amazing to watch.

However, the movie’s so predictable that a nearsighted man could see the plot coming from a mile away. Moreover, the script seems to lack cohesion. Three scribes receive mention in the credits, and they most likely took turns on drafts rather than working as a unit. The best screenplays have clean cartilage between the bones and this one needed some arthroscopic surgery. There are some great lines, particularly for Ray, but they’re sparsely spread throughout rather than continuous. The ending is so overwhelmingly cheesy that it’s almost unbearable to watch and takes away from the great, weighty material that built nicely toward the end. The finale should’ve been stronger. The audience deserves better than what it gets here.

Overall, Uptown Girls is a movie filled with talent and bound to be good when it can be. However, it finishes more than a few notes short of a symphony. For me, it was strange to watch this within a week of Murphy’s death. I had the same feeling that I get watching Adrienne Shelly in Hal Hartley’s early work or Heath Ledger movies.

It’s a tragic loss when anyone dies young, but especially when it’s an actor we love. As the credits begin to roll, we’re struck with the realization that we’ll never see them in a new project. I take solace knowing Brittany Murphy may be gone, but she leaves a robust filmography that can be viewed repeatedly and shared with future generations of moviegoers. Uptown Girls wasn’t my favorite, but it’s still comforting to know that Murphy’s wide, bright smile will outlive us all.