Uptown Girls movie review

Well, I thought I might also post a review of Uptown Girls, the movie I watched last night. It was actually my second time seeing it (I saw it for the first time a little over a year ago).

The movie begins with one of the main characters, Molly Gunn, who is the daughter of a rock legend who died when she was young. She feels very alone in the world because of what happened to her parents, but covers it up because her father's inhertiance was left for her, so she lives off of that. She is very immature- she has never had a job even though she's 22, her apartment is a complete mess, and she still is obsessed with guys. However, when Molly's manager steals her inheritance, life isn't going to be so easy for her anymore. She is now forced to do something she's never done before- get a job. She then is hired as a nanny for an 8-year-old girl named Lorraine "Ray" Schleine (played by Dakota Fanning). You couldn't imagine two people more different from each other. Ray is a spoiled, snobby "eight-year-old going on forty". So basically, Molly is childish and immature, and Ray is already acting like an adult. The only music she will listen to is Mozart, and she also takes ballet but refuses to ever do "freestyle" dancing. But we soon see that Ray's mother is always too busy with her job to pay any attention to her, and her father is very ill and is confined to his bed. Like Molly, Ray is painfully alone in the world, only she finds a different way to cover it up. One night, Molly talks to Ray about how they are both going through the same thing, and she also tells Ray what happened when her parents died. Molly explains to Ray how she ran away after her parents died, and wound up in Coney Island, an amusement park in New York where the movie takes place. She went on the teacup ride and she explained to Ray how it felt like she was still on that ride, confused and scared with everything around her all in a blur. This is when Ray and Molly really start to understand each other. A few days later, Molly gets the news that Ray's father has died, and her mother, in a panic, asks Molly if she's seen or heard from Ray, who didn't come home from school that day. Molly immediately figures out where Ray must be and goes to Coney Island. Sure enough, she finds Ray sitting in one of the teacups as the ride is getting ready to start going. Molly climbs into the teacup and they both go on the ride together.
In the end, Ray finally learns to be a child and Molly learns to be an adult, because they both taught each other how to act their age. Molly decides to finally get her life together and moves out of her friend's house where she was staying to get her own apartment. She also goes to Ray's end-of-the-year ballet recital. The movie ends with Ray's solo, where she does a special performance for Molly to one of the songs that Molly's father wrote for her. We see that Ray has finally loosened up, because her solo consists of modern and freestyle-type dance moves.
So I definately recommend this movie. It is has both comedy and drama in it, and has a very enjoyable storyline, although it does get a little sad at the end. Overall, it's a great movie and I'd give it 4.5 out of 5 stars!