The surprising thing is that Wayne Wang directed this; the unsurprising thing is that it's from a John Hughes story. Also unsurprising is pretty much everything in the movie, with the sole exception of Bob Hoskins. It was impossible to miss the fact that J'Lo and Ralph Fiennes were the leads in this Cinderella-type romantic comedy, but none of the previews I saw indicated the involvement of Hoskins, an excellent actor, too often overlooked.
Lopez and Fiennes are attractive and competent and both are able to carry this off well enough. The supporting cast is spotty, though. Hoskins shines the brightest -- I'd really like to see him lead some more films. His Iago in the BBC production of Othello, co-starring with Anthony Hopkins was phenomenal. Stanley Tucci is very good but the rest of the cast varies from good to weak.
Maid in Manhattan is enjoyable enough as long as you don't expect anything more than a by-the-book fairy tale romance without a shred of originality.
Lopez and Fiennes are attractive and competent and both are able to carry this off well enough. The supporting cast is spotty, though. Hoskins shines the brightest -- I'd really like to see him lead some more films. His Iago in the BBC production of Othello, co-starring with Anthony Hopkins was phenomenal. Stanley Tucci is very good but the rest of the cast varies from good to weak.
Maid in Manhattan is enjoyable enough as long as you don't expect anything more than a by-the-book fairy tale romance without a shred of originality.