The Babysitters

This was a humdinger of a film we'll say Jawbreaker meets Risky Business. Except this time the business is girl powered. Our heroine is Shirley, a tall sort of gawky stoic high school senior that runs a neighborhood babysitting service. It's clear in the first 10 minutes of the film that she's crushing big time on one of her clients, Mike played by John Leguizamo. He picks her up and drops her off, and begins taking 'the long way home' so to speak when his wife Gail played by Sex in the Cities Cynthia Nixon and he begin to drift apart.

Now that seems like a pretty cut and dried story in itself, and I pretty much went in thinking that would be the jest of it. What you don't plan on is Mike telling his oldest friend and co worker Jerry about the ongoing trysts he's been having; and then Jerry wants a similar arrangement for himself. Shirley drafts her mischievous best friend Barb for the job, and Shirley then gets 20% for setting up the deal. Shirley is determined to get money for college it seems by any means necessary. The two make $250 a pop and become quite in demand so then they have to expand their 'elite' services to some of their already practicing babysitters. They approach already incredibly insecure Jill about the extra clientele. Initially she is resistant, but gives in and begins to enjoy the money she is making. The girls become so busy that Jill recruits her younger sister Nadine when she's already booked to handle the overflow.

Nadine begins to question why she has to hand over 20% of her money if she does 100% of the work. Shirley explains it's because 'she sets up the appointments' and takes her cut. Next thing we know, Shirley's phone stops ringing. Nadine has gone rogue and stolen all Shirley's clientele and seems to have dropped the babysitting guise. Shirley is furious and sets out to keep her pimp hand strong. She tries to get hard evidence that Nadine is cutting her out; however when she cannot , she displays her power in such a way that the whole school feels it. The girls get the message and fall back into line.

The sexual escapades and husband's lying escalates. Mike begins to become possessive over Shirley who he has discovered is his only solace in his very structured and responsibility laden life. He entertains the idea of running away with her leaving his wife and kids to fend for themselves. Shirley becomes more and more distant, and emotionally shuts down as she begins to feel the effects of what it is she is doing. In the meantime despite the warnings she was given Nadine is determined to do things her way, sending Shirley off the deep end. The emotions of this film hit a fever pitch, however you don't see the surprise twist coming. Definitely expertly written, with some intense social commentary about people's need to have secret lives.