Having set the standard for contemporary chick-lit adaptations, “The Devil Wears Prada” is a tough act to follow. The clothes, the attitude, the scene-stealing, Oscar-nominated work from Meryl Streep – anything would pale by comparison. But “The Nanny Diaries” especially does, and it might have seemed like solid, sufficiently mindless summer entertainment otherwise.

Based on the 2002 hit novel by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, the film has a strong cast (Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti) and fleeting moments of dead-on satire. It remains essentially true to the book with a few tweaks here and there, until it loses its bite and quickly goes all soft and gushy at the end.

Johansson stars as Annie, a young woman who is unsure of what she wants to do with her life after college. She stumbles into a nanny gig for a posh couple on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and their bratty son, Grayer (Nicholas Reese Art). Increasingly capricious demands and explosive pratfalls ensue.

Anyone could have directed this, so the real letdown comes from knowing that the film is from Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, the husband-and-wife writing-directing team behind the thrillingly inventive “American Splendor.” Here, their collaborative creative abilities seem to have been watered down and squelched to appeal to the widest possible audience.

RATED: PG-13 for language. RUNNING TIME: 105 minutes. RATING: 2½ out of 4 stars

– By Christy Lemire, AP movie critic