The modern Hollywood romantic comedy or "RomCom" has a very basic formula:
1.) The "meet-cute" - The couple involved meet in a way that is accidental, funny, a misunderstanding or in circumstances that cause one person to hide something from the other.
2.) The contrivances - the script will call for multiple reasons for the couple not to get together even though it is obvious they are meant for each other. Sometimes the contrivance is a huge obstacle that must be surmounted, other times it is something that if one of the partners said a couple of words the road block to happiness would be removed.
3.) A cast of secondary characters that are both comical and supportive.
4.) The happy ending - the couple overcome all obstacles to love and live happily ever after.
The success of the film will depend on the chemistry of the movie stars and the quality of the script. If the stars have really good chemistry than even a bad script might make a successful film. But even a really good script won't be saved if the movie stars can't sell it. Probably the most successful romantic comedy of all times is Pretty Woman. There you had a very good script and great star chemistry between Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. For one of the worst check out Gigli with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Affleck and Lopez had plenty of chemistry off screen but they could not make it translate to film. In addition they had a terrible script so the movie crashed and burned.
Maid In Manhattan also stars Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes and they have good chemistry together. The script borrows heavily from the Cinderella fairy tale and is serviceable to get the stars through to the end. The cast of secondary characters include Bob Hoskins as the hotel butler, Frances Conroy as the best friend, Stanley Tucci as the campaign manager, Natasha Richardson as the hotel guest, Priscilla Lopez as the mother and Tyler Posey as the son. All perform their roles admirably. And of course the film has a happy ending you could see coming 10 minutes after the film started.
Maid In Manhattan is light-hearted and a fun date night movie. It will offend no one and bring a tear to the heavily romantic types. It's a charming "B" movie with the budget and marketing campaign of a blockbuster.
At The Movie House rating ** 1/2 stars.
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