Little Girl Lost (Feature) Activists Say Purchase With a Conscience this Holiday (in National News) SoCal Car Dealership Accused of Cheating APA Customers (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: 2002 Gamer's Gift Guide (11/29/02) (in Consumer) Wushu Tries to Infiltrate the Olympics (12/13/02) (in Sports) The Future of Indo-American Cinema (in A&E) Emil Amok: Using Trent Lott (in Opinion)

Wayne Wang’s ‘Maid’ is Exactly What You Expect

By Justin Lowe | Special to AsianWeek

If ever there were a poor little rich girl worthy of a contemporary Cinderella story, Jennifer Lopez certainly qualifies. From her childhood in the Bronx she’s risen to her current superstar status, running a personal business empire of music, movie and fashion ventures. Universally known by her moniker, J.Lo, Lopez does not need any introduction to millions of fans in the U.S. and abroad.

Filmmaker Wayne Wang’s career has exhibited a similar fairy-tale quality — his second feature, Chan is Missing, was reportedly made for $27,000 and remains a landmark of Asian Pacific American cinema 20 years later. Following a string of APA-themed films, culminating in 1993’s Joy Luck Club, Wang has been alternating critically acclaimed independent features like Smoke and Blue in the Face with bigger-budget studio fare, most recently Anywhere But Here with Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman.

Despite a well-respected career, Wang has yet to experience significant box office success, and while Lopez’s performances in Out of Sight, The Wedding Planner and Enough have brought her widespread recognition, she’s received only modest critical acclaim. So both the filmmaker and star are hoping that Maid in Manhattan, originally written for and declined by Julia Roberts, will be J.Lo’s Pretty Woman-style blockbuster.

Perhaps reassuringly, Maid in Manhattan took the number one box office slot in a field of weak competitors last weekend, making it the best opening ever for both Lopez and Wang. However, it will be difficult to hold on to a top ranking this week with the release of several strong contenders, most significantly the Sandra Bullock-Hugh Grant romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice.

Maid in Manhattan features Lopez as Marisa Ventura, a Puerto Rican single mom from the Bronx with a 10-year old son, Ty (Tyler Garcia Posey), a fifth-grader fascinated by Richard Nixon’s political career. Along with a diverse supporting cast of hotel domestics (including the excellent and understated Bob Hoskins as a deferential butler who takes an interest in her career), Marisa works as a chambermaid in a high-class New York hostelry, where she’s assigned to the luxury suites frequented by wealthy and influential guests. Her ambition, however, is to rise into the hotel’s management ranks and she’s encouraged by fellow maid Stephanie (Marissa Matrone), a tough-talking softie with an eye for the guys.

After Ty’s dad stands him up for a weekend visit, Marisa has to take her son to the hotel and stash him with Lily (Di Quon), the hotel seamstress, while she goes to work. When Ty disappears to wander around the hotel, he encounters local politician and senate hopeful Chris Marshall (Ralph Fiennes), the scion of a wealthy political family and New York’s most eligible bachelor. Ty is totally taken with the Republican candidate, reciting Marshall’s voting record and inviting himself along to walk Marshall’s dog in Central Park.

Meanwhile, Marisa and Stephanie are cleaning the rooms of jet-set guest Caroline Lane (Natasha Richardson), where Stephanie convinces her friend to try on Lane’s white cashmere Dolce & Gabanna pantsuit, which needless to say, looks spectacular on Marisa. When Ty arrives with Marshall in tow, the candidate is instantly taken with Marisa, mistaking her for Caroline. He invites her along and sparks fly during their walk in the park, but Marisa can’t quite tell Marshall that she’s a hotel maid out of uniform.

Following this mildly appealing setup, all the ensuing romantic plot twists arise out of this simple mistaken-identity misunderstanding, as Marisa attempts to forestall disclosing her occupation to Marshall and he resolutely pursues her, believing she’s a wealthy socialite. There are no surprises to this contemporary Cinderella plot — with a script by Working Girl’s Kevin Wade (based on a story by John Hughes, writing under his Edmond Dantes pseudonym) — as the narrative proceeds through its predictable paces.

Ultimately, it’s this predictability that makes Maid in Manhattan so satisfying. The familiar fairy-tale structure is as entertaining as it is reassuring, leaving little to challenge the filmmaker, performers or audience. In his first outing since last year’s independently produced The Center of the World, Wang exhibits a classic Hollywood style and a strong command for the conventions of the romantic comedy formula, but little imagination.

Lopez is charming and occasionally feisty as Marisa, while Fiennes’ Chris Maxwell is unfailingly pleasant, though often hopelessly bland. The result is more often romantic than it is comedic, but what’s troubling is the obvious message that people of color, particularly women, advance fastest by latching onto wealthy, upwardly mobile white folks, regardless of their own attributes or qualifications. While this subtext may strike some as hopelessly outdated and even offensive, given her widely publicized engagement to Ben Affleck, the movie’s real-life resonance seems likely to reassure Lopez’s fans that fairy tales really do come true.

Maid in Manhattan is rated PG-13 and is currently playing in theaters nationwide.

Reach Justin Lowe at nextwavve@yahoo.com.