Maid in Manhattan (2002)

Number Rolled: 71

Movie Name/Year: Maid in Manhattan (2002)

Genre: Romance

Length: 105 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Director: Wayne Wang

Writer: John Hughes, Kevin Wade

Actors: Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Tyler Posey, Frances Conroy, Chris Eigman, Amy Sedaris, Marissa Matrone, Priscilla Lopez, Bob Hoskins, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Maddie Corman, Sharon Wilkins, Jayne Houdyshell, Marilyn Torres, Lou Ferguson, Di Quon, Liliane Thomas, Raquel Shapiro, Emma Thaler

Marisa, a maid, is dutifully cleaning her rooms when one of her coworkers convinces her to try on a guest’s designer outfit. She’s caught in the expensive clothing by a senator candidate and they hit it off. As they bond over her gifted child, they begin to fall deeper in with each other.

I like some movies with this recipe, but there has to be something exceedingly special about them. Something has to get them to stand out; whether it’s a fantastic script, or brilliant acting or even a slight unexpected twist thrown into the otherwise par-for-the-course plot. Maid in Manhattan had none of that. I think that, maybe, the writers thought that giving the poor maid a gifted son would add that twist to their cookie-cutter script, but they were wrong. I’ll admit it didn’t hurt, but it certainly didn’t pull the movie out of the rut it gets stuck in from the very beginning.

I’ve liked Jennifer Lopez before. In “Selena” she was outstanding and stuck to the character like duct tape, but she falls flat on her face here. I simply couldn’t buy her as the hard-working, struggling, single mom that she had to portray. However, I thought Tyler Posey was great, especially for a child actor. It’s very easy for child actors to over-act, possibly because they don’t understand the societal norms for certain emotions and circumstances, but Posey didn’t fall into that trap.

If you enjoy this specific movie recipe than it’s something you might be able to use as background noise, but don’t expect to be impressed.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 2.3/5

Overall Opinion – 2/5

Movie Trailer: