Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

The Babysitters is an interesting movie, with an interesting premise, and some top-notch performances.  However, the one-dimensional characters really weigh down this film.

Katherine Waterston plays Shirley, a smart teenager who should have been innocently enjoying her senior year of high school, and getting ready for college.  She's pretty, popular, and except for a bit of OCD, she seems to be a happy, well-adjusted teenager.

Like many teenagers, Shirley makes a few bucks babysitting. 

John Lequizamo and Cynthia Nixon play Michael and Gail, a struggling married couple.   To say they've drifted apart is an understatement.  They really don't see eye to eye on anything, and communication between them is practically non-existent at this stage.  They have a couple of kids, and they hire Shirley to babysit.

At the end of the night, when Michael is driving Shirley home, they make a detour to get some food, and the two easily strike up a conversation.  One thing leads to another and the two start their affair.  When Michael pays her for the babysitting job, and tosses a couple hundred extra dollars her way, Shirley's reaction is understandably mixed.

However, she gets an idea in her head, and thus is born the "Babysitters Club" - a group of teenage girls who watch the kids, then "service" the fathers on the way home.  They charge a lot of money for this extra service, with Shirley getting 20% of the proceeds as the girls' "manager".  She's really more like a "pimp" but she doesn't actually use that word.

The characters in this movie are all painted with the same bleak brush.  Every girl is eager to join the group.  Every one of them is willing to sleep with the men in order to make some fast money. 

And none of the men have an ounce of conscience.  Every one is eager to sign up for appointments.  None of them is ever shown having any remorse, or even a single moment of guilt.  They're all willing to cheat on their wives and place their families in jeopardy, all for some teenage action.

It would have been nice, and more realistic (I hope) to show some girls turn down the opportunity when it was offered.  Same thing with the men - couldn't they have shown any man unwilling to cheat on his wife?

John Leguizamo's character is the only father we get to really know.  As such, he's the most likeable, if such a word can ever be applied to a man who's sleeping with the babysitter.  But at least we come to understand him a little bit. And he's shown as trying to work things out with his wife, but she's very difficult.  Not to excuse his behavior, but at least when he claims that his wife doesn't understand him, he's actually not lying. 

The rest of the fathers aren't developed at all.  We simply see them enjoying this arrangement, with no understanding at all what is driving them.

The other girls who join the club are given a little bit more development than the other fathers.  But, still, not a lot of time is spent showing us who they are, and why they're so willing to do something so wrong.  Is it all about money?  None of the girls are shown to come from poor families, none are shown needing the money for anything important.  The lack of reasons given for the actions of the characters severely hurts this movie.

The movie is not all bad, however. The performances were terrific.  I particularly enjoyed Katherine Waterston.  I'd never heard of her before, or seen any of the other things she's been on.  But she really did an amazing job with this role.  I hope to see more from her.

This movie is not a comedy, in fact the story takes a fairly dark turn.  I'm glad it was written with a serious tone, and never became silly or slapstick.  After all, teenagers selling themselves to older men is serious business.

The climatic scenes leading up to the ending were very well done.  There were a couple of surprises that were very nicely handled.

The sex scenes are not graphic at all, and there's only a small amount of nudity shown.

Overall, this movie held my interest, but I think it could have been much better, if more time were spent giving the characters some real dimension.  It's not the worst way to spend an hour and a half, but I wouldn't go too far out of my way looking for it, either.

Recommended: No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age