Maid in Manhattan
Maid in Manhattan, a 2002 romantic comedy, directed by Wayne Wang and starring Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes is a modern day Cinderella story. Marisa Ventura (Lopez) is a struggling single mother working to make a better life for her and her son Ty (Tyler Posey.) While working in a ritzy Manhattan hotel a classic (well kind of) case of mistaken identity sets things into motion. Marisa is mistaken for the spoiled social butterfly Caroline Lane (Natasha Richards) when she is coaxed into trying on some of the socialites unwanted clothing. Ty picks that precise moment to show up with senatorial candidate Christopher Marshall (Fiennes) asking permission to take a walk with him and his dog. Immediate attraction sends the two barreling head first into a chain of social disasters. Reluctantly Marisa pushes her Prince Charming away for the sake of their futures, so now its up to the Prince to sweep her off her feet and head for that happily ever after.
This is a cute feel good movie. There is nothing spectacular about the film and given its very predictable outcome it doesn’t have much as far as originality goes, but it is still a very enjoyable film. The story developed by John Hughes is a very simple but fun one, Cinderella all over again. It was meant as a light feel good romance, and it accomplishes just that. Its cute, funny, and romantic. You may know whats going to happen right from the beginning, but the in between is quite enjoyable. There are several funny moments that add a little character to the film. The dancing scene between Marisa and her co-workers is very cute, and when Marisa sits on Christopher’s magazine face, I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud. Natasha Richards is just amusing all throughout the film. The acting wasn’t overly powerful, but there was nothing wrong with it at all. It fit the film perfectly fine.
This would be a great girls night movie, or a rainy day perk up film. If you have an extraordinary boyfriend you might be able to coax him into it too, but good luck with that. It was just a light delightful film, nothing epic or timeless about. Just and easy does it nice and romantic film.
Worth it in Blu-ray?
I think this transfer to 1080p High Definition (2.40:1) was very nicely done. Everything looks great from skin coloring to the outdoor scenes. New York looks great in the background and the hotel scenes are very detailed. The coloring is very vibrant and clean. It was a very nice transfer. If you don’t already own the DVD or just want to upgrade to blu-ray, I see no reason why you shouldn’t invest in this film. It was beautifully done and would make a nice addition to the romance section of your movie collection.
The audio is presented in English, French, Portuguese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Thai, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. It sounded good to me. It was primarily a dialogue film so most of the audio was right up front and not really working the surround sound. Most of the surround sound came from the outdoor scenes.
Subtitles were in English, English SDH, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Korean, Thai, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified)
Special Features entailed a Blooper reel and BD Live enabled.