Shirley (Katherine Waterston) is having an affair with the father of the kids she babysits for. To soothe his guilty conscience, he throws some cash her way.

Before too long he asks if she knows someone else that can “babysit” for one of his friends. With that request, a small enterprise is born.

Shirley soon plays pimp to a teenybopper brothel made up of her closest chums. The money piles up, and she and her friends are soon the most popular rugrat wranglers ever, earning most of their take when Daddy drives them home.

The Babysitters is packed with big talent like John Leguizamo and Cynthia Nixon, but it just doesn’t work. The strong acting overshadows the weak plot. There is no catalyst or conflict or conclusion.

This is just an odd film. Sometimes too serious, sometimes too aloof and always too flat, the movie takes itself a little too seriously.

Grade: D

The Babysitters releases in select theaters May 9.