Devious Nanny (2018 Lifetime)

Devious Nanny

Synopsis (via Lifetime)

Brian and Elise hire the perfect nanny, but could she actually be responsible for seemingly unrelated murders—or is someone else setting her up?

Thoughts

We open on a woman drinking coffee (in a shirt that says, “I need more coffee”). She goes to put sugar in her coffee and is surprised to find it is roofied. As she is crawling on the floor, she is attacked by black-gloved stranger and suffocated to death. Then, staged as a drug overdose, we get the title card.

Next we see Amber, who is 15 mins late for her interview for a Au Pair. The handsome man (Brian) and his attractive wife (Elise) let her interview anyway. They are surprised to learn that Amber is very qualified (nursing school, cool with cleaning, and has a references from a family who loved her like their own). The husband, Brian, keeps giving Amber “the eye,” but his wife is oblivious and loves Amber because she isn’t too pretty. Her husband agrees and says she is a “plain jane.”

After landing the big account, Brian and Elise decide they can afford to hire Amber. Instead of getting a drink with his work bros, we get a gratuitous shot of Brian working out in the gym, including a loooong crotch shot. (Thanks, Lifetime.) Amber shows up early to move in and Brian shows her to her room. There is sexual tension until Elise, comes home and finds them. Elise then shows Brian a nanny cam she set up in a picture frame.

Elise is an Art Curator and is telling her POC BFF about the new nanny when a creepy man comes into the gallery and offers to buy it. When they refuse, he gets angry.

At a pool party, Elise goes in to get another beer and Amber is creepily watching her through the window while holding the son, Cody. After the party Elise thanks Amber for everything she has done so far. They have girl time and talk. Then, Elise immediately checks the nanny cam.

While Elise is watching the nanny cam, Amber and Brian are having a drink. (Well she isn’t having one in case the baby wakes up.) I’m not sure how that baby didn’t wake up from the ice in his whiskey on the rocks.

As the family goes to bed, Amber makes a phone call from a hidden cell phone. She sets up a meeting at Original Joe’s with her friend? Sponsor? Lover? IDK. This movie is trying to be mysterious.

Brian gets taken off the big account and given to his co-worker (Vance) and he is VERY upset about it. He yells at his wife and then heads to “The Bar.” He comes home after drinking a fifth of whiskey; he heads to Amber’s room and they get it on. The next morning Amber is all into it and Brian says it can never happen again. After she throws some plates, Amber goes to her room to cry. She gets out her secret phone and calls her friend (Jax) and leaves a sobbing message. (My favorite kind!!!)

In a motel, Vance is drunk and ready to party. A woman in a pink wig visits him and then stabs him in the belly and it kills him. Before he dies he asks the mystery pink-wig woman, “What are you doing here?”

Amber tries to seduce Brian in the living room. She tells him, if he rejects her, she will tell his wife that he is a cheater—and she will believe her because a) he is and b) he has cheated in the past.

Elise gets a call in the middle of the night from her POC BFF (Lori) telling her that the gallery has been vandalized. The police are suspicious.

We see the creepy guy in a junkyard. He gets murdered; we don’t see how—just a spattering of blood.

The police are VERY convinced that Brian is involved because “there have been two murders, two!” Brian tells his wife and she says that it is pretty convenient that two people standing in their way to success got murdered.

It all comes back to Amber. Elise and Brian talk about firing her because she is weird and never sleeps. Brian almost comes clean, but chickens out. They stake out the house with the nanny cam and see Amber leave in the middle of the night. Elise decides to follow her and see where she goes at night. Elise is VERY obvious and follows right behind Amber.

Amber goes to Jax and has a breakdown that her life isn’t normal. Elise overhears Amber talking about sleeping with married men. The next day Elise goes back to Jax’s house and asks her about Amber. Jax surprisingly agrees. We find out that Jax and Amber are friends from an orphanage (Amber’s family died in a car crash). Amber had an inappropriate relationship with her foster dad. Elise has the info she needs and leaves Jax alone in her house. (Or is she?) Jax gets stabbed in her house.

Back at home, Elise finds Amber’s hidden phone when she tries to contact the references. She calls Brian and tells him to come home. Amber is out with Cody at the park. Instead of going after her child, Elise pours herself a glass of wine and waits for someone to come home. Elise puts Cody to bed and tells Amber that she is on to her and that she has called the police. Amber has no idea about what Elise is talking about. They get in a KNOCK-DOWN BRAWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Twenty punches!!!!) Elise goes to strangle Amber and Brian gets home to pull her off of her. Amber disappears.

The police take Brian and Elise into custody and think that Amber is now the number one suspect.

Six months later, Brian is digging in the backyard to plant some trees and finds a box. It has Amber’s bracelet in it. Elise admits that it was her all along. She killed Vance, creepy guy, Jax, and the woman from the beginning of the movie (who he cheated on her with). Elise knew that Amber was the perfect scapegoat for the crimes. She tells Brian that he has two choices he can pretend to live the perfect life with her or turn her in.

Brian decides to live the perfect life and doesn’t turn her in. On his way back from the police station, Brian finds a letter at the door. Inside the letter is a USB drive. Brian and Elise plug it into the computer and drink some wine. It is Amber who admits to have noticing the nanny cam, and took footage from the camera and sent it to the police incriminating them both for the murders.

As she is typing the letter, Amber looks into the camera and says, “Too bad about Cody. Foster care isn’t that bad. I mean, look how I turned out.”

Side Note

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Overall rating

🔪🔪 (2 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷🍷 (4 glasses of wine required)