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BY LOREN KING
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Boaz Yakin’s film is likable, if contrived. Fresh from 8 Mile, Brittany Murphy gets to play ditsy, wise, and heartbreaking, in that improbable movie-character range that made Kate Hudson a star. And she pulls it off, even stealing scenes from Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam), who proves as formidable a co-star as Eminem. Fanning’s Ray is a Hollywood invention, a snooty Upper East Side kid (her mother is a record exec played by Heather Locklear) so wounded by parental narcissism and neglect that she’s become a wise-ass, joyless hypochondriac who chews up nannies and spits them out. Murphy’s Molly, on the other hand, is an immature 22-year-old so scarred by the tragic deaths of her rock-star parents that’s she’s insulated herself from the world by shopping, falling in love, and living like a slob with her pet pig. When sit-com circumstances force Molly to take a job as Ray’s nanny, Uptown Girls becomes a distaff About a Boy, with an on-stage finale that outdoes that film for tearjerking contrivance. Yakin (Remember the Titans) has the formula down pat, so audiences can — and will — broadcast plot points well in advance. (93 minutes)
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