Maid in Manhattan Synopsis: A Senatorial candidate falls for a hotel maid, thinking she is a socialite, when he sees her trying on a wealthy woman’s dress.
Marisa Ventura is a single mom who works as a maid in a ritzy New York hotel and has her eye on a management position. After being goaded into trying on an outfit belonging to one of the hotel’s wealthier guests by a friend, Marisa is mistaken as one of the hotel’s affluent guests by Christopher Marshall, a handsome bachelor planning to run for Senate. Attracted to Christopher, Marisa finds herself in a tricky situation where her little white lie begins to catch up with her.
This was my first time watching Maid in Manhattan. It seems to be a rather beloved, or at least popular, movie in the rom-com genre, so admittedly, I went into the viewing with moderately high hopes. After it was over, I was left to wonder… was that it?
Jennifer Lopez has grown on me as an actress, especially after her fantastic turn in Hustlers, but Maid in Manhattan seemed to be one of those movies where she didn’t have to do much… because the script doesn’t give her much to do. Her character is part of the housekeeping, but she yearns for a management position. Unlike Second Act, where she plays a retail worker who yearns to become a manager, we don’t really see why Marisa is qualified or what she’s done to earn the position. She puts some lavender on a guest’s pillow, which impresses her boss.
Ralph Fiennes plays Christopher Marshall, a senatorial candidate, who finds Marisa’s honesty refreshing, especially as she seems to understand the voters he’s hoping to win over. That particular theme – growing up in the Bronx vs. growing up wealthy – is never fully explored. Instead, it serves as Christopher’s “She’s not like other women” revelation.
I am fond of Cinderella-type stories, and Maid in Manhattan certainly fits the bill, but the problems lie in the fact that Marisa and Christopher really don’t spend that much time together. There is a brief walk with Christopher’s dog, and then their brief dance at some gala Christopher asked Marisa to attend with him. This kind of romantic comedy can work if the two leads have the right amount of chemistry, but I didn’t feel much of anything watching Lopez and Fiennes together on screen. Fiennes, in a rare rom-com leading man performance, felt miscast here.
Some fun moments didn’t make this movie a total waste. I loved Lopez’s scenes with her son, Ty (Tyler Posey), and her fellow maids/friends. I also love Stanley Tucci in just about everything, and he was, of course, entertaining and funny as Christopher’s long-suffering campaign manager. It was also lovely to see Bob Hoskins on screen again, where he plays Lionel, a butler showing Marisa the ropes after her management application is fast-tracked. A scene between Lionel and Marisa after her secret is discovered is probably the best in the entire movie, as it has a lot of emotion and heart.
Sadly, Maid in Manhattan had a lot of potential to be a glamorous, romantic Cinderella story, but I just felt like it was another predictable rom-com suffering from a lack of chemistry between the two leads. John Hughes came up with the original story before it went through extensive rewrites, but honestly, I wish we could have seen what that particular movie could have become.
Watched: 03/04/2021
Notable Song: Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones
