Maid in Manhattan

Dir. Wayne Wang, starring Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson.

If you have a taste for traditional romantic comedy, this will do. But it's definitely, unashamedly a chick flick.

Marisa (Lopez) is an independent single mother who lives in the Bronx with her son and works as a maid in a luxury Manhattan hotel. Marisa dreams of bigger things and a better life for her son.

When a ritzy hotel guest asks Marisa to return an outfit to a boutique, Marisa (predictably) is dared by her friend to try on the $5,000 ensemble. Before she has a chance to change, Marisa's son bursts through the door with Christopher Marshall (Fiennes), the handsome, debonair heir to an American political dynasty. Marisa gets caught up in the fantasy excursion of wearing expensive clothes and jewelry while being wooed by a rich guy, before the complications of her true identity are revealed.

Lopez is convincing as Marisa, a girl who grew up in the projects, and now lives uptown, a couple of notches above the poverty line. She does a good job of portraying Marisa's mixed feelings about applying for a hotel management position and getting involved with Christopher.

It's also Fiennes' first time playing the hero of a romantic comedy, and he brings the full force of his gorgeous boyish charm to the role.

This is your basic mistaken identity comedy that does all it can with the material presented. It isn't badly done. Director Wayne Wang (Smoke, The Joy Luck Club) takes the Hollywood material seriously and treats the characters with affection.

It's a movie that aims for warm smiles rather than belly laughs - it's all exceedingly pleasant and very easy to watch.