I cannot be totally objective about this film as I have a soft spot for the lovely Susan Blakely who must have one of the most sincere faces on this earth ! This being the case, any film starring her will be a pleasure to watch for me ! That apart, I did find the film pretty good, I had already seen the film "The Perfect Tenant" which was made by the same director ( and also starred Tracy Nelson in the role of a mentally unsound woman ),Now as to Tracy Nelson herself, she indeed plays a very worrying and frightening character, you do actually forget she is acting and actually believe her to be the part she is playing. This is really quite frightening as her moves are psychotic and unpredictable. She commits brutal murder without really realizing what she is doing. She is living in a fantasy world and trying to act it out in real life. Not a film to be watched alone or late at night ! I am also very keen on the actor Bruce Boxleitner whom I have seen in several films previously. I have seen other readers compare this film to "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" with Jessica Lange. I did enjoy that but found this film far more frightening and anguishing, notably from the performance given by Tracy Nelson. I managed to find it on DVD in the USA and certainly didn't regret my purchase !

Just like in THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE, the movie centers on a psycho nanny who'd do anything to keep her secret. And as people get suspicious, the bodycount begins and the walls close on the psycho nanny, leading to the invertible final climax.

But here the motivation is different: it's not revenge, it's just pure madness and the main character's need to be loved "just like in the books".

This movie never soars to incredible heights of suspense or originality, but it keeps the viewer interested, mostly due to the superb cast.

It's definitely worth viewing. I liked it as a little snack. Not much more.

The perfectly bad opening has wide-eyed psycho "romance novel" reader Tracy Nelson (as Andrea McBride) walking in on scruffily sexy husband Darren Gray Ward (as Troy Hatfield) with an arousing blonde. She stabs herself and not the blonde, which understandably lands Ms. Nelson in a mental hospital. Upon release, Nelson takes a thankfully more natural approach to knife wielding. In the future, she will only stab herself when absolutely necessary. Nelson fantasizes about a romance similar to the one in her favorite novel "The Passion of Mandy". She gets a job as "The Perfect Nanny" by stealing the resume of "Nikki Harcourt" and lands a job working for Southern California neurosurgeon Bruce Boxleitner (as James Lewis)...

In the hospital, it's easy to tell he's a good guy by comparing Mr. Boxleitner's height and hair count with rival Scott Alan Smith (as Doctor Conrad). Attracting ex-model Susan Blakely (as Julia Bruning),the widower Boxleitner has two children, college-bound Dana Barron (as Fawn) and gullible young Scott Terra (as Ben). The boy boasts an IQ of 162, but daughter Dana turns out to be the smartest branch on the family tree. Getting wiser and visibly older in close-ups, Ms. Barron suspects there's a rotten nanny in the house. Livening up events is ditsy mother Katherine Helmond (as Rebecca McBride),who proves some apples don't fall far from the tree. Nelson and her trashy family are perfectly cast, and watching Barron unravel the plot is dumb fun.

****** The Perfect Nanny (2000) Robert Malenfant ~ Tracy Nelson, Bruce Boxleitner, Dana Barron, Katherine Helmond