The Nightmare Manny
Having decided to return to work Karen (Ashley Scott - Fatal Defense) is looking for someone to help look after her two boys which leads to her hiring herself a manny called Alex (Mitch Ryan - How Not to Propose), who arrives at her door after a series of less than successful applicants. And Alex seems a dream come true as he is good with her children, cleans, cooks and basically will do anything to make life easy for Karen, although he isn't so happy when he meets Greg (Woody Jeffreys - Evidence of Truth), her boyfriend. It is Greg who realises that there is something not right about Alex as he seems too perfect but also seems to be trying to come between him and Karen. But when Greg starts to look in to Alex's past he discovers some dark secrets which makes him fear for Karen and her boys' lives.
If you haven't yet watched "A Stranger with My Kids", which is also known as "Manny Dearest", and read that synopsis it certainly sounds like another one of those Lifetime movies which reworks a familiar script of a nanny who turns out to be a psycho and who wants to be part of the family they work for on an intimate level. The one obvious difference is that these types of TV movies usually feature a female nanny who tries to get rid of the wife so she can become the new wife to the husband and mother to the children but here we have a manny who wants to snag himself a wife and kids. As such there are some familiar scenes in "A Stranger with My Kids" from Alex dealing with one of the kid's bullies to him spying on Greg whilst acting ominously, and of course there is a scene of him flipping out when frustration gets the better of him.
What though makes "A Stranger with My Kids" enjoyable is, I am sure, some intentional tongue in cheek moments which are enjoyably ridiculous, such as a scene where Karen has Greg sneak out of the house having spent the night. But it is Mitch Ryan who makes this movie as when as Alex he gets angry, frustrated and loses it he really flips out and it is entertaining. He also does a nice job of playing Alex a little humble yet making him a little too full on which makes it comical. As for Ashley Scott this is certainly a lot more relaxed performance from Scott than in a previous movie where she had a nightmare nanny to deal with.
What this all boils down to is that "A Stranger with My Kids" is just a variation on the usual made for TV psycho nanny movie with the nanny switched for a manny. Yet it has this wonderful tone of being slightly humorous in places and full on over the top in others which helps to make the familiarity of it all entertaining.
