NOT JUST BAD BAD FOR YOU! So Sugary sweet it makes you sick to your stomach. . On the surface Maid In Manhattan it seems like a light romantic comedy with a predictable and sweet love story. However the numerous racist and sexist stereotypes throughout the undertones of this Cinderella tale will make any viewer of color extremely bitter. Better have a couple of barf bags around while watching this movie. You're gonna need them.    Jennifer Lopez is a maid in a four-star downtown Manhattan hotel. (Stereotype #1 about Latinas) She dreams of becoming a hotel manager (Stereotype #2 about Latinas- all work in service jobs). A single mother (Stereotype #3) she struggles to work during the day and take care of her 10-year-old son and is supported by her mother (Stereotype#4) who works in a rundown Spanish restaurant uptown (Stereotype#5) While cleaning the room of a rich British woman, she decides to try on some of her clothes. Conveniently, a rich senate candidate comes to the room and mistakes her for the Hotel guest. He's smitten by her charm and her looks. She's attracted to his loot. So to bag the rich guy she and her friends (also minority stereotypes) go along with the ruse and more supposedly humorous hijinks ensue. The flimsy story disappears and the movie slowly changes from a vehichle for Jennifer Lopez, Actress into a vanity project for J. Lo, Superstar. We get numerous shots of her walking around the city in designer clothes, Eating at fancy restaurants and trying too hard to look hot while courting a bored Senate candidate. The movie comes to a climax when the ruse is revealed. She and her friends at the hotel are fired and her dreams of becoming a Hotel Manager are crushed.    But wait-Prince Charming(tm) is riding down in his white limo to save her. He's had such a wonderful time with her that he's fallen in love(tm). He tries to talk to her in the street, but she gives him some spiel about not knowing who she was when she was a maid and now caring about her. This leads to him seeking her out at her new job. While she's working at another hotel, where he's conveniently he's holding a press conference, he finds her and professes undying love for her. They kiss and we get a montage of pictures showing them living happily ever set to J.Lo's painful butchering of Diana Ross' classic "I'm Coming out." She's married to the senator, getting the management job at the hotel and then one of her saying they're still married a year later. Excuse me I have to go puke. (I also have to reorder the barf bags; no telling when I'm going to need them for the next romantic comedy)    Words can't describe how much I hate this movie. It's an insult to women and minorities. Maid in Manhattan insidiously hides numerous racist and sexist messages under a beautiful front of pretty actors, lavish locations and luxury goods. The movie secretly tells women of color they can't find success without those essentials for success: expensive designer clothes, perfect make-up, beautiful hair and a rich White man to save them. Worse, it tells women to lie and manipulate to get what they want. Because we all know working hard takes way too much time from shopping. Movies like this aren't bad; they're bad for you. Watch too many movies like these and you'll get your mind warped.    It seems like the producers were trying to make a "Pretty Woman" type movie for J.Lo but they didn't understand the execution of J.F. Lawton's brilliant concept. In an attempt to copy Pretty Woman, Maid in Manhattan tries to update the fairy tale by just using minority characters in most of the roles and fails miserably. There was a lot more under the surface of the Richard Gere/Julia Roberts vehichle than most people understand. Pretty Woman wasn't an update of a fairytale it was a satire poking fun at the fairy tale. Lawton was making fun of all the fairy tale stereotypes by using L.A's downtrodden as the characters in the story. He was making the comment that to get to happily ever after both the man and the woman have to learn to value each other as equals.    The acting here is horrible. No, scratch that it's WRETCHED. Jennifer Lopez is terrible. Terrible singing, terrible acting and she didn't look too hot in all those designer clothes either. She has no chemistry with Ralph Finnes and adds no dimension whatsoever to her character. Throughout the movie she's just J.Lo superstar playing dress up. After seeing this movie and Enough I can tell you Jennifer Lopez's acting career is in serious trouble. She's gone from an actress who showed tremendous potential Selena, Out of Sight, and Anaconda to an egotistical over-the-top ham with no presence and no personality. Ralph Finnes is horribly miscast in the role of the Senate candidate. I couldn't believe he was from New York with that British accent that kept popping up in every scene. An actor of his caliber deserves better than this syrupy slop. Bob Hoskins must need some rent money because a fine actor like him deserves better than this. Natasha Richardson and Amy Sedaris chew on scenery while waiting for their paychecks to clear. Tyler Posey (Parker Posey's son) is the only actor to give a good performance here. I'd love to see more of him in the future.    Please, Please IF YOU VALUE YOUR DAUGHTER'S SELF-ESTEEM DO NOT LET THEM WATCH THIS MOVIE! Get them the Wonderful Bend it Like Beckham, Akeelah and The Bee, and Disney's Mulan. The older crowds can Get Muriel's Wedding, J.F. Lawton's Pretty Woman or his hilarious Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.
Output: NEG