The Hottest State: Ethan Hawke has adapted his own novel about an up-and-coming actor (Mark Webber) who meets the girl of his dreams (Catalina Sandino Moreno), only to discover that he isn't the boy of her dreams. Although you have to admire Hawke for eschewing the boy-gets-girl happy ending that Hollywood has been serving up for so long, the movie seems inchoate, like a first draft that somehow wound up in print.
- KENT WILLIAMS
The Nanny Diaries: A college student (Scarlett Johansson) works as a nanny for a socialite (Laura Linney) and her dysfunctional New York family. Johansson and Linney are excellent, but the film is flat-footed and tiresome.
- MARJORIE BAUMGARTEN
