One of my absolute favorite performances by an actress this year is Anna Diop’s turn in Nanny.
Diop plays Aisha, an undocumented immigrant from Senegal who has just landed a nanny gig with a wealthy New York couple. The child, Rose, takes a quick liking to the new caregiver with a pretty smile and a French accent. She even likes Aisha’s Senegalese food and is eating better than ever.
Meanwhile Aisha is a natural. After all, she is a mother herself, and her whole plan is to earn enough money to have her son come to America to join her in this new life she’s building. At the moment, the son is staying with relatives back in Africa. She has regular phone chats with them until, one day, she starts getting voice mail instead of her sister or son on the line.
It’s a shame that attempts have been made to shoehorn this film into a quasi-horror category because it is absolutely not a horror film. Not to say that the mom and dad don’t start acting creepy and mean(continually “forgetting” to pay Aisha) or that Aisha doesn’t have a series of weird visions, illusions , and dreams. Yes, all of that happens.
But this is a slow burn that is meant to keep you wondering, not revealing its “twist” until the last ten minutes. Is the payoff worth the build up? Ah, that’s the question. For me, the conclusion was secondary to the quietly mesmerizing performance by Diop. Her charisma leaps from the screen, and if it’s her character’s job to lead the viewer through the tale using her as our POV, Diop certainly does it well.
Michelle Monaghan, seen this year in the Netflix series Echoes, is great as an unlikable working mom and first-time director Nikyatu Jusu is sure-handed and has an artistic eye for detail.
Nanny was released theatrically and is available on Amazon Prime Video From December 16th| 3 out of 4 Stars
