Maid in Manhattan (2002)

Strong and Moving!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

I decided to see this film because I like Jennifer Lopez as an actress and as a singer too. I saw already 4 films where she's playing and this one is arguably her best. Ralph Fiennes also plays his role very good. We have another Cinderella story, but this time it's a bit unique, it has heart and soul and it has very touching happy end! Maid in Manhattan may also be interesting for those ladies who are divorced and have children like the main character. In real life it could hardly happen, but a film is not always supposed to be very real sometimes it's better to entertain and give positive emotions and this movie does it very well.

I avoided watching this film for the longest time. Long before it was even released I had dismissed it as an over-hyped, over-blown, overly romanticized piece of Hollywood schmaltz, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I never watched it in the theater. I shook my head in disbelief even though I had never seen it. Then I was asked to be a judge at a high school public speaking contest. One of the girls, little Rosalina, spoke about this movie. "It was so great," she said. "You really felt like you were a maid in NYC falling in love with this rich dude." "Nonsense," I thought. I shared my feelings with my fellow judges. One looked at me and said, "you might be right, but if she liked the movie that much maybe she'll want to learn more about really being a maid. The movie must have done something right to get Rosalina so interested." "Well, maybe," thought I. Then it finally appeared on Pay TV. "OK," I thought, "I'll give it a look see." I didn't want to like it - and I didn't. I loved it! What a great movie.Where to start? First - the directing. My high school public speaking contestant was right. Wayne Wang does a superb job of creating an almost "you are there" type of atmosphere. The gaiety of life inside the most elegant city in the world. The nonchalance of having to clean hotel rooms; then the rising sense of panic when she first meets Ralph Fiennes. You don't just watch it; you really do feel it. Then - the performances. The lead performances from Jennifer Lopez (as Marisa) and Ralph Fiennes (as the hot Christopher Marshall) are excellent - Lopez's being the superior, I thought, but both were good. They had their poor girl/rich boy characters down to a perfect "t" I thought. In my opinion, though, stealing the show was Jayne Howdyshell as Carmen. Problems. Well, the romance was perhaps too contrived, in the sense that I just don't accept that Marisa could have moved so effortlessly from steerage to first class by stealing the gentleman's heart. (I know she was invited the first time; but he seems to keep getting into first class without being stopped until he's been there for a while.) The realities of the separation of the social classes were much more realistically portrayed, I thought, when Marisa and Christopher kissed for the first time. A minor quibble, though. This is truly an excellent movie. My only regret is not seeing it in the theater, where I think it would have been so much more impressive.9/10

I am no fan of "Chick Flicks", and as a straight guy into action films, this movie was not exactly targeted at me. However, I decided to review this film, because they decided to remake it as a Mexican Telenovales, and my question is why?(Unless they think a cast of unknowns would work better than JLO & Finnes better (It might actually happen although 20 hours of this film would sicken me)). This movie is lame at best, and there is no drama, humor, suspense, and worse, no chemistry with JLO and Finnes (He even has more in common with the kid). It is basically a fairy tale along the lines of "Ever After" (Which is a better film, because there is some action (Drew Barrymore with a sword), and shockingly Barrymore is hotter in that film than Lopez is here which with the notable exception of "Bad Girls" is not true). Is this the worst film of its type? No it isn't "the Sweetest Thing" is, but it is still a 1 star film.

So it's Cinderella. It's hard to imagine why that would bother anyone who'd seen the trailer, by the time you sit down to watch the movie you know the plot.I may be the last person on earth to see Jennifer Lopez outside the checkout line. She's not bad looking but didn't impress me all that greatly as an actress, but she did tell the story. This may be a light- weight role for Fiennes (duh!) but I thought he carried it off well. The kid (Ty) was great, and Bob Hoskins was wonderful.I think Pygmalian (Pretty Woman) is a better story, and Julia Roberts is obviously head and shoulders above Jennifer Lopez, but I certainly don't regret adding it to my Netflix queue!Van