Taglines: They’re about to teach each other how to act their age.
Molly Gunn, the freewheeling daughter of a deceased rock legend, is forced to get a job when her manager steals her money. As nanny for precocious Ray, the oft ignored daughter of a music executive, she learns what it means to be an adult while teaching Ray how to be a child.
Uptown Girls is a teen comedy film directed by Boaz Yakin, who was working from a screenplay which Julia Dahl, Mo Ogrodnik and Lisa Davidowitz had adapted from the story by Allison Jacobs. It stars the late Brittany Murphy as a 22-year-old living a charmed life as the daughter of a famous rock and roll musician. Dakota Fanning, Heather Locklear, Marley Shelton, Donald Faison and Jesse Spencer also feature in the film.
The film opened at number 5 at the US box office, raking in US$11,277,367 in its opening weekend. Uptown Girls was panned by critics, with Rotten Tomatoes giving it a 14% rating based on 111 reviews.
Molly Gunn (Brittany Murphy) is a carefree and fun-spirited girl, living off the ample trust fund of her late rock legend father, Tommy Gunn. Molly falls for singer Neal Fox (Jesse Spencer) when he plays at her birthday party thrown by her best friends, Huey (Donald Faison) and Ingrid (Marley Shelton).
They have a night of passion but he leaves in the morning, saying that he can’t stay in Molly’s carefree life. Adding to Molly’s misfortune, she finds out that her father’s accountant embezzled her money, so she is left penniless and homeless. She moves in with her best friend, Ingrid who tells her that in order to stay with her, she must find a job.
Molly begins work as a nanny of an eight-year-old hypochondriac and neat freak named Lorraine “Ray” Schleine (Dakota Fanning) who is the daughter of Roma Schleine (Heather Locklear), a music executive who is too busy to notice Ray. Ray’s father is in a coma and is being treated at home by a private nurse which causes Ray to stifle her emotions to maintain order. Although she enjoys ballet, she refuses to freestyle and often quotes Mikhail Baryshnikov: “Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun.” Molly attempts to show her how to have fun, which at first causes much conflict between them, but eventually Ray opens up to let Molly in.
Molly continues to pursue Neal and holds onto his lucky jacket in hopes of seeing him again. After a baking accident, Molly causes a fire that damages Neal’s jacket. She redesigns it to fix the damage but Neal breaks up with Molly when he sees it, claiming he has to pursue his music career and does not have time for her flightiness. Soon after, he gets a record deal with Roma and has a hit music video with a song that Molly inspired him to write, all while wearing the jacket Molly made. Disgusted, Molly agrees to Ingrid’s suggestions to sell off her possession so she can prove that she is growing up. However, after a fight, Ingrid kicks Molly out to live with Huey.
The budding friendship between Molly and Ray continues to develop when Molly takes Ray to Coney Island and explains that when her parents died, she ran away to Coney Island and rode the tea cups. She encourages Ray to talk to her father, even though he is in a coma and promises that it will help him improve. However, Ray’s father dies the next day, and Ray tells Roma to fire Molly. In Roma’s office, Molly calls Roma out for never paying attention to her daughter.
As she leaves, Molly bumps into Neal, who begs to get back together as she was his whole inspiration. Molly turns him down and coldly tells him that he is selfish and only cares about her when she can give him something. Ray runs away from home and Roma begs Molly to find her. Molly finds Ray at Coney Island, riding in the tea cups. At first, Ray tries to be angry with Molly for raising her hopes but then she collapses into Molly’s arms, crying, finally coming to terms with her grief.
Directed by: Boaz Yakin
Starring: Brittany Murphy, Dakota Fanning, Marley Shelton, Donald Faison, Heather Locklear, Marceline Hugot, Pell James
Screenplay by: Julia Dahl, Mo Ogrodnik, Lisa Davidowitz, Allison Jacobs
Production Design by: Kalina Ivanov
Cinematography by: Michael Ballhaus
Film Editing by: David Ray
Costume Design by: Sarah Edwards
Set Decoration by: Pamela Roy-Stasney
Music by: Joel McNeely
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language.
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release Date: August 15, 2003
