‘Uptown Girls’: Brittany Murphy’s greatest performance
On the poster of Uptown Girls, Brittany Murphy stands blonde and beautiful, accompanied by a stroppy-looking young Dakota Fanning and a pig.
On the surface, the film looks unassuming—perhaps it’s a wholesome comedy or a quirky coming-of-age story. And while it is those things, it’s also so much more, with some surprisingly poignant moments sandwiched between lighthearted doses of comedy that proved Murphy’s skill as one of the greatest actors of her generation.
The star tragically died in 2009 when she was just 32, but in her short career, she delivered memorable performances in everything from the modern Jane Austen adaptation Clueless and the intense Girl, Interrupted to Eminem’s 8 Mile and Robert Rodriguez’s anthology crime film Sin City. Yet with Uptown Girl, Murphy demonstrated her magnetic charms while also bringing plenty of complexity and humour to a role that might have otherwise been quite difficult to pull off if attempted by anyone else.
The film was directed by Boaz Yakin, who hasn’t done much else very notable besides the Denzel Washington vehicle Remember the Titans, featuring Murphy’s Clueless co-star Donald Faison, who would also come to star in Uptown Girls. Yakin took quite the gear shift when he moved from Remember the Titans to Uptown Girls, however, with the latter blending the chick flick and rom-com templates that were incredibly popular at the time with coming-of-age and drama.
We follow the 20-something-year-old Molly Gunn, the daughter of a dead rockstar who lives a life of luxury off her father’s money, until she comes to face reality for the first time. Suddenly deprived of her financial backing, she must get a job, which lands her in the role of a nanny to Ray, an obsessive-compulsive child riddled with neuroses who Molly soon realises is practically neglected by her mother.
The pair initially clash, but they come to teach each other vital lessons, with the child-like and free-spirited Molly showing Ray the joys of life, while Molly forces Ray to confront parts of her hiding from responsibility and adulthood. Murphy is perfect as Molly, attempting to navigate a world marred by grief. Despite this, she is bubbly and fun, with the actor imbuing her character with sheer energy and brilliance that you just can’t help but love. Her optimism is exactly what Ray needs to hear in the face of her own father being comatose, although it eventually results in a breakdown of communication, giving us the movie’s most heartbreaking scene.
After Molly takes Ray to Coney Island and comforts her about her fears surrounding her father’s potential death, Ray’s father passes away just the next day. The eight-year-old runs away from home, but Molly knows where to find her—on the teacup ride at Coney Island. Here, both Murphy and Fanning give incredible performances as they silently spin the ride around, and the pain and concern in Molly’s eyes make the scene so much more painful.
When Ray throws up after getting off, she slaps Molly out of sheer frustration and grief, slapping her back before Ray kicks and punches at her stomach, eventually crumbling into a mess of tears and hugs. It’s a moving sequence, and Murphy’s lack of words and just her well-considered facial expressions demonstrate her acting genius and mastery of the craft.
Her performance as Molly is the guiding light of the film (although we can’t ignore how good Fanning is, too), and the growth that she demonstrates in her character is a joy to watch. While Murphy never gave a bad performance, Uptown Girls is arguably her greatest, truly encapsulating her charm and charisma alongside her ability to take any role and lend it stunning depth and complexity.
