Movie Review: Along Came a Nanny (2014)

Synopsis: When a series of burglaries in an upper-class neighborhood leaves the police baffled, an ambitious detective, Mike Logan, convinces his chief to let him go undercover as a nanny. While he has a rough start, Mike quickly figures out the nanny role and even befriends Jessica White, the attractive nanny across the street. However, he makes no progress stopping the burglaries and finds his career in jeopardy when the family he is working for is also robbed.

Who's in it? The movie stars Cameron Mathison, Sarah Lancaster, Valin Shinyei, Jena Skodje and Leah Cairns.

Review: Even though I've had my doubts in the past, I am willing to admit I have enjoyed most Hallmark movies more than expected and, because of that, I proactively added this film to our movie library. My wife and I watched it last night and, unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be.

The premise itself isn't a bad one, though other films have done something similar. I'll also admit his whole nannying experience wasn't nearly as predictable as I thought it would be, despite the movie leaning heavily on gender stereotypes. The problem was the overall movie failed to win me over.

I think the biggest problem with this film is I was expecting it to at least have a halfway decent mystery. That, however, did not turn out to be the case. It only took me until about the 10-minute mark of the movie to figure out who was behind the burglaries and why and the film made very little effort to convince me I was wrong. 

In fact, I think the only real mystery in this movie was how Mike (Mathison) raised zero red flags in that close-knit community, both from his obvious lack of nanny experience and the police-like questions and comments he was making. As on edge as that community was, I have a hard time believing nobody suspected he was either an undercover cop or the criminal.

I probably could have forgiven the lack of a decent mystery had the romance between Mike and Jessica (Lancaster) would have been good enough to distract from it, but that relationship just seemed forced. I mean, she was actually quite awesome with everything she managed to do while still working as a nanny. He, however, was pretty much lying to her the entire film and, even though he obviously had valid reasons for doing that, it meant she ultimately shared an end-of-the-movie kiss with a man she knew almost nothing about.

And, speaking of the ending, this movie's finale left a lot of loose ends. For example, what kind of reaction did his employer/their kids have to him revealing his real job? Did he choose to remain a police detective rather than become a real nanny? Did he plan to still remain part of the kids' lives? Did the parents finally realize their kids are probably too old to need a nanny? The film chose not to answer any of those. It was almost as though the writers didn't know how to address those questions in a way that would still result in a happy ending.

Final Opinion: As I've stated, I don't hate all Hallmark movies, but there are some that do fail to meet my expectations. This would be one of those films. I didn't completely hate it, but it wasn't one that was particularly memorable either.

My Grade: C