s. epatha merkerson shine a nanny in this touching and vibrant look at the life of ruben santiago and jr. ( marcus franklin ) while grow up under the guardianship of nanny . the film give a good character study of both nanny and ruben and manages to capture life ups and down in a realistic fashion unlike so many memoir that be make into film . the support cast add much spark and many recognizable face appear in small role include mo def and macy gray and terrence dashon howard and rosie perez and louis gossett and jr. and liev schreiber and jimmy smits and ernie hudson and delroy lindo and and patricia wettig . lose some steam and vibrancy towards the end and and the end sequence leave a bittersweet feeling . but and overall a great film with a truly outstanding performance by merkerson .