Maid in Manhattan
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.12 You Save: $11.87 (79%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Maid in Manhattan
Movie Review: classic chick flick
Summary: 4 Stars
Let's get one thing straight: aside from her acting, which is generally decent, I do not like Jennifer Lopez. You'd think this would ruin every movie she's in for me, but actually I have ended up seeing them all at one time or another. Despite her rather obnoxious real-life persona, J Lo is strangely compelling on screen. In this particular movie, she is perfectly cast and does a great job as Marissa, the struggling single mom and hotel maid with ambitions toward a career as manager.If you are unaware of the plot, all I have to say is that this is the Cinderella story as it would have been written in the 21st Century. Happily, the "evil stepsisters" idea is replaced with a genuine bond of sisterhood between Marissa and the other maids. Marissa does have a mom that's keeping her down with negative thinking and her own personal demons, but even this character is not a one-dimensional villain. As for the handsome prince, well, he's a Senator with an overbearing staff that he'd rather escape from most of the time
So anyway, now that you know that I have not rated this movie four stars because I'm a rabid J.Lo fan, let's take a look at why I do like it:
As mentioned, decent acting all around
A few unconventional characters, like Marissa's friend/partner who has more spunk than is usually allowed for an older woman, much less a maid
Classic chick flick plot (I qualify as a chick, so that makes sense) that is emotional without being sappy
Honest look at a benind-the-scenes world of the hotel business that I thought was fascinating in itself
Maid in Manhattan is enjoyable despite having a somewhat predictable plot. Expect your man to be resigned when you bring it home, but he'll come around...even if it's only because he likes Jennifer Lopez.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle
Movie Review: "This would never happen at the Four Seasons"
Summary: 4 Stars
To understand why MAID IN MANHATTAN was so wildly popular at the box office when first released in 2002, one must first examine the times in which it first appeared. Less than a year on from September 11th, audiences needed fairytale escapism, and this movie delivered it with an adorable Jennifer Lopez (then riding high on her dual career of actress and chart-topping pop singer) and a whimsical Norah Jones soundtrack. Seven years later, does MAID IN MANHATTAN still hold it's entertaining spell? Yes...
Marisa Ventura (Jennifer Lopez) manages to juggle a hectic job of working as maid in the plush Beresford Hotel in New York with being a loving single mother to her 10-year-old son Ty (Tyler Garcia Posey). One day whilst fooling around in the closet belonging to globe-trotting socialite Caroline Lane (Natasha Richardson), she happens to bump into political campaigner Christopher Marshall (Ralph Fiennes) and a warm friendship begins which soon turns into romance. All the while hiding her true identity, Marisa teeters on the brink of losing her job--and a shot at landing a management position. Will she risk it all for another chance at love?
Lopez and Fiennes share a sleek chemistry; but Kevin Wade's screenplay oddly ends up following the supporting characters more closely and in greater depth than the leads. The late, great Natasha Richardson plays the shallow, bubble-headed socialite to a tee; and Bob Hoskins has some wonderful scenes as the Beresford's veteran butler. Keep your eyes peeled for Amy Sedaris ("Strangers with Candy"); as well as Broadway star Priscilla Lopez.
Movie Review: Well, It's worth renting it.
Summary: 4 Stars
Well, a lot of reveiws I've seen writen about this dvd here are saying how horrible jlo is and how they hate her singing and that they'd never see this movie in a million yrs. If so, plz don't write a reveiw about it!!! I personally despize jlos music, but I think that this moive was pretty good.
This was decent movie. It was very similar to the theme of the moive "Ever After" (with Drew Barrymore) witch was set in midevil times, and is also much like a cinderella story. You see, in "Ever After", a girl's father dies, and is servent to her dreadful step mother and step sisters. When she must save her fellow sevent from being sold to the palace, she dresses up like a lady and the price sees her. Thinking that she too is noble, he falls in love with her. She continues dressing up so, convincing herself that she will tell him eventually, and when she tell him he is extremly destressed. He's mad that she desived him, and also mad that a servent could win his heart. However, he soon realizes that it doesn't matter if she is noble or not, because he loves her. After this he forgives her and they live happily "ever after". I like this story much better, becuase it is much more compeling and thought provoking than Maid in Manhattan, yet they are much the same.
Bottom line? Rent Maid in Manhattan, it's worth it, and the kid who plays her son in the movie is great. Also, rent "ever after" It's one I own, and watch all the time.
Movie Review: Class Cross-Over on Love Tube: "I'm Comiiiinnng"
Summary: 4 Stars
The theme that thrills me most is the class emphasis of the film. True love breaks the class barrier cheaply, this has been severally proved in real life to be an age-old truth. Possibilities became reality.
Marissa Ventura (J.Lo) was the voice of the voiceless poor that the film gave a giant microphone to. Yes and True! Fate brought them (Ventura and Chris Mashall) together, but the cord of principled truth could not be broken by the wishes and schemes of a society programmed to divide the poor from the rich.
If only for the unblemished truth of pricipled and positive sel-worth that the film preaches. I vote for it in this review. It teaches: Never, never, to denigrate your self-worth, even when you have been programmed by the accident of birth into a class that "hews wood and fetches water" for the rich. Your break would certainly come, if you faint not!
The reason why the film was an instant success is because it spoke for the millions of single-parents, in North America, who had to "work-it-out" in sweat to sustain and patch up the remnant of emotion, product of unfulfilled dreams. It gave them hope to dream again. Rekindled dreams, they shall have, if they watch this film.
To the millions of defeated and poor laborers who dare to dream again, I ask you this question: are you coming up? you can say yes with either buying or watching this film!
Movie Review: Best "JLo" movie yet ...
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm not a huge fan of Jennifer Lopez, but her performance in this movie was more than passable -- she played a truly believable character, totally un-diva like -- and her presence is luminous enough to cast a spell on Ralph Fiennes' male lead. He warms to her with a chemistry that I can buy, but of course the presence of her unbelievably cute and personable son doesn't hurt. He's a little ambassador of guileless charm, and I hope to see him again in other films.
It is essentially Lopez's turn as a modern day Latina sort-of-Cinderella that makes this movie tick. Sure, the premise is pretty unbelievable, but why has Cinderella as a fable been handed down for so many years? People love the beautiful dream, the happy ending. Maid in Manhattan updates it and sets it in the big city. The band of "merry mice" are her co-workers, including the excellent Bob Hoskins. The "wicked women" (not her stepsisters, but the ones who would steal the show) are ultimately exposed as superficial and mean-spirited, and in the end sincerity and real beauty -- the kind that shines from within -- carries the day.
Not bad ... for my money, Jennifer Lopez's best performance to date. She's no Meryl Streep -- heck, she's no Julia Roberts -- but I do think she has committed a nice performance to film here. Well done.