In this heavy-handed reworking of the Cinderella story, Jennifer Lopez attempts to keep it real by playing Marisa, a housekeeper at a luxury hotel who dreams of being promoted to assistant manager. After illicitly trying on some designer duds she finds in a room she’s cleaning, Marisa is mistaken for a well-heeled socialite by a winsome senatorial candidate (Ralph Fiennes). Cheerfully aided by her blue-collar colleagues, she continues the charade, risking all that she’s worked to achieve. Lopez brings a spunky charm to her role (although she a bit too glamorous to convince as a working-class Josephine), and Fiennes exudes plenty of natural charisma. That their characters have absolutely nothing in common is of no importance in this trifling romantic comedy, which is mainly concerned with passing time until the inevitable fairy-tale ending.

Grade: B-

Kinsey Scale: 1 (With her flawlessly applied makeup and Oribe-created hairstyles, gay icon Lopez is perhaps the most elegant chambermaid in cinematic history. Natasha Richardson, who plays a snobby hotel guest, starred in the TV version of Suddenly, Last Summer and is the daughter of queer director Tony Richardson and gay fave Vanessa Redgrave.)

(Appeared in Q Syndicate)