The Babysitters
2008 · Directed by David Ross
Original language: English
- drama
The story
Seventeen-year-old Shirley is a good student who works as a babysitter in order to make money for college. One night Michael, a father Shirley works for, confesses he's unhappy with married life. Shirley has a crush on Michael, and seizes this moment to kiss him. Michael is so happy he presents Shirley with a big tip, which gives her an idea. Shirley plans to make extra money by setting up her teenage friends with other unhappy fathers.
What it’s like
A morally uneasy, talky drama set among suburban family homes, a cabin and a train, with an unsettling, uncomfortable undercurrent rather than a warm or comforting one. Its emotional register is cool and transactional, following a driven high-school girl whose plan to earn college money turns into a scheme that exposes the hypocrisy of the adults around her. The story is built on adultery, sexual exploitation of a minor and prostitution, and it treats these as central rather than incidental, so it lands as frank and disturbing. Expect no gentle, low-stakes comfort here. It suits viewers who want a dark, character-driven drama about ambition, complicity and adult selfishness, and who can sit with sustained sexual themes involving a teenager.
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