Maid in Manhattan (2002)

Directed by Wayne Wang. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Marissa Matrone, Bob Hoskins, Tyler Posey, Chris Eigeman, Priscilla Lopez, Amy Sedaris, Frances Conroy. [PG-13]

Contemporary Cinderella story is tied so tight to tired formula you can see the rope burns. Single mother Lopez is working as a maid at an upscale Manhattan hotel when she first meets Senate candidate Fiennes, but he mistakes her for high society and romances her. How could he make such an error? The usual rom-com misunderstandings that could be solved with a single line of dialogue, but the heroine goes along with the deceit because…it’s charming? These are not well-matched leads, this is not a cleverly-concocted fairy tale romance, there is no compelling reason to watch. Since no effort is made to make the main characters witty or comical, all the heavy baggage of the humor rests upon the shoulders of Richardson’s dippy socialite (the one Lopez is confused for), but it’s not a profitable effort on her part. Wince-inducing lowlight (or highlight, if you’re an unabashed sucker for these kinds of empty-calorie, cookie-cutter valentines): a quartet of maids busting out in dance as a dress-up montage set to a cover of “I’m Coming Out” starts. Hoskins emerges with his dignity intact as a butler sympathetic to the main maid’s situation. Story credited to Edmond Dantès, a pseudonym for John Hughes.

33/100