Uptown Girls
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| Uptown Girls | |
 Uptown Girls Promotional Movie Poster |
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| Directed by | Boaz Yakin |
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| Written by | Julia Dahl Mo Ogrodnik Lisa Davidowitz |
| Starring | Dakota Fanning Brittany Murphy Marley Shelton Donald Faison Jesse Spencer and Heather Locklear |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | August 15, 2003 |
| Running time | 92 min. |
| Language | English |
Uptown Girls is a 2003 comedy directed by Boaz Yakin and adapted from the story by Allison Jacobs into screenplay by Julia Dahl, Mo Ogrodnik and Lisa Davidowitz. It stars Brittany Murphy as a 22-year-old living a charmed life as the daughter of a famous rock and roll musician. Dakota Fanning stars.
Tagline: They're about to teach each other how to act their age.
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The plot summary in this section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the content. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. (March 2009) |
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[edit] Plot
Molly Gunn (Brittany Murphy) is a spoiled rock n' roll girl, living off the ample trust fund of her late rock legend father. Molly is carefree and fun-spirited but also can be irresponsible and immature, having no concept of money or the need to work for it.
When her accountant steals all of her money, Molly has to get a job. After a few unsuccessful interviews and a stint at a department store, Molly finally is hired as a nanny for an uptight eight-year-old girl named Ray (Hannah Dakota Fanning) who's often ignored by her busy, music executive mother (Heather Locklear).
Molly and Ray couldn't be any more different: Molly is an adult but acts like a child, and Ray is a child who acts like an adult. Although they clash at first, they come together and learn to act their age and become best friends.
Molly instantly falls for singer Neal Fox. Huey says Neal is celibate for the sake of his musical career, and Ingrid also tries to discourage her, but Molly sees Neal as a "rock and roll poet sex god" and begins to pursue him.
She proves she's Tommy Gunn's daughter by showing Neal her father's guitar collection, 16 electric and 1 acoustic on which he wrote the classic "Molly Smiles". The song is too poignant for Molly to let Neal sing it to her, because her parents died on the way back from the Budokan concert which premiered it.
Neal stays the night, breaking his vow to not have romantic relationships his first year. Feeling smothered by Molly's attention and objecting to the chaos of her "looking-glass" world, he gets ready to go home.
Ingrid comes over and scolds Molly for her filthy apartment beyond grotesque and refuses to console her. Ingrid tries to call accountant Bob to get the gas and electricity restored (Molly ignored the final notices), but the phone is out. Later, attorney Feldman explains that Bob milked her estate, even borrowing against her father's royalties, and advises Molly to get a job.
Molly applies at the store where Ingrid works, taking advantage of the employee discount to buy 900 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets for $1300. She spends all night at Neal's apartment and fired when she's found the next morning asleep on a store display.
Huey comes to the rescue and attempts to kill two birds with one stone by getting Molly a job with his own boss Roma (Ray's mother). When Ray finds out at the last moment that Molly is her new nanny, she is less than thrilled. In Ray's luxurious but spare home (on Fifth Avenue, directly across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art), she encounters an impersonal doctor and nurse caring for a man in a coma.
Ray shuts Molly out of her private life, refusing to tell her that the man is her father. In a blatant contrast to Molly's mess and chaos, Ray's room is "so orderly" that the dolls are all on shelves (not to be played with), a bed and small computer desk are tucked up against the windows, and the only other furniture is a small table set for a tea party.
The relationship proceeds downhill with an argument over how to wash dishes. Ray actually calls her new nanny a "tree-loving hippie" and Molly quits and gets a bloody nose.
A barefoot Molly returns to her apartment, only to find her pet pig ("Muu", based on the Thai word for pig) tied to the doorknob in the hallway. She's been locked out, due to nonpayment of rent and having a pig in her pigpen of an apartment. They tell her that she can claim whatever possession she needs until she is banned from her apartment building. Still barefoot, she tries to visit Neal later that rainy night, but he ignores the door buzzer.
The next day, Ingrid invites her to live with her, but she brings way too much stuff, so Ingrid advises Molly to downsize and find her center. She also insists Molly pay half the rent.
Molly drops in on Ray, who after her ballet class pointedly declines to participate in freestyle dancing while the other girls enjoy taking a break from classical music for 5 minutes of On Broadway. Molly begs for her nanny job back and is accepted "on probation". As the music continues in the background, Molly dances in jubilant circles around Ray as ever-somber Ray walks steadily down a Central Park path. Ray defends her refusal with a Mikhail Baryshnikov quote: "Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun." This conversation ends in another quarrel, and Ray gives Molly the finger. Molly makes her "take it back" and then gives her "a surprise", the gift of her pet pig Mu.
Molly tries to adjust to life. Unfortunately, Ingrid and Molly have a falling out and Molly moves in with Huey. On one occasion, Molly tries to take Ray to Coney Island. But they arrive a week before the seasons starts and have to cancel their trip, much to Ray's hidden disappointment. Later on Molly tells Ray about the time her parents died and says that she ran away to Coney Island. The only ride she was allowed to get on by herself was the Tea Cups. Molly tells Ray that she was right about what she had said earlier, she is afraid, and cries in Ray's arms. The next morning she discovers Neal at the apartment only to learn he spent the night with Roma.
Hurt, she leaves the apartment, jumps into a park pond, and winds up back at Ray's with a high fever. Ray states that she wishes to go to the library, where her father is. Molly tells her that the people who had their friends and family talk to them while they were in a coma lasted ten times longer then the ones who were left alone. So Ray's begins visiting her father. While watching Neal's new music video (with him wearing the jacket Molly had destroyed and remade) with Huey, they receive news that Ray's father died. When Molly goes to comfort Ray, she is told by her mother that Ray never wants to see her again and gives her a severance check. Molly asks how Ray is doing and Roma says she is doing well, which prompts Molly to go on a rant about how Roma knows nothing about her daughter and needs to treat her as a child, not a grown up. Afterwards, Molly must sell off her father's collection of guitars.
Molly gets a place of her own, wanting to stand on her own two feet once and for all. As she shows Huey around her very small apartment, Molly is called by Roma who asks her if Ray is with her because she can't find her. Molly, knowing where Ray has gone, goes to Coney Island and gets onto the Tea Cup ride with Ray. After the ride, Ray vomits and when Molly tries to give her water to drink, Ray slaps the cup from her hand and then slaps Molly. Molly returns the hit which causes Ray to unleash all her rage and anger as she starts to punch Molly's stomach, ending with her clutching Molly and sobbing.
At the wake, Molly and Ingrid reconcile and Molly goes to see Ray. Ray offers Molly her job back, but she declines saying that they will be friends instead. Ray says that grown ups never stay friends with kids and Molly says that she doesn't see any in the room. Smiling, Ray says she does. Molly decides to go to fashion design school, re-quoting Baryshnikov. She goes to Ray's final dance recital and see Neal there, who performs "Molly Smiles". In disbelief, she watches as the girls walk on stage, each carrying one of her father's guitars. Ray comes out last and dances, incorporating moves she had seen Molly do, as the song and dance are dedicated to her. The crowd cheers and Molly is over joyed. The movie ends with Ray stating that all stories have an ending, but in life, every ending is just a new beginning.
[edit] Cast
- Dakota Fanning - Lorraine "Ray" Schleine
- Brittany Murphy - Molly Gunn
- Marley Shelton - Ingrid
- Donald Faison - Huey
- Jesse Spencer - Neal Fox
- Austin Pendleton - Mr. McConkey
- Heather Locklear - Roma Schleine
- Pell James - Julie
- Wynter Kullman - Holly
- Amy Korb - Kelli
[edit] Mistakes
In one of the last shots from the back of the theatre, Neil is clapping in the corner of the screen while at the same time the sound is still playing the song "daddy's little girl" with both guitar and vocals.
[edit] External links
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