Written by Kevin Wade
Directed by Wayne Wang
Jennifer Lopez Marissa Ventura
Ralph Fiennes Christopher Marshall
Tyler Posey Ty Ventura
Marissa Matrone Stephanie Kehoe
Bob Hoskins Lionel Bloch
Natasha Richardson Caroline Sincaire
Amy Sedaris Caroline’s snotty friend
Chris Eigeman John Bextram
Stanley Tucci Jerry Siegel
After reading my review of Enough, you might wonder why I would go see this movie. I think the trailer won me over. (You can view and download it here.) I don’t mind archetypal stories, provided they’re done right, and the Cinderella story is a time-honored one. The Three’s Company-esque aspect of it, with Marissa ducking behind to keep Chris from seeing her and stuff, looked funny, and I thought having Ray Fiennes in the movie would give it a bit of class.
Oh. And I didn’t have to pay to see it. That too.
I went to see it, and ended up thinking that for the first time in a long time, my expectations from a trailer were perfectly justified.
The cast is good on all counts. I liked the relationship between Marissa and her son and friends, Tyler Posey was adorable as the precocious Ty, Ralph Fiennes was likeable, Stanley Tucci effective as Chris’ tight-assed political advisor, and Bob Hoskins was utterly charming as Lionel, with the entire theater was rooting for him. Natasha Richardson turned in an effective performance as a narcissistic Sotheby’s manager, and for fans of Strangers with Candy, it was fun watching Amy Sedaris in a, um…revealing performance as a bitchy socialite.
The plotting was good, and I thought a good job was done in creating conflict between Marissa’s management ambitions and her relationship with Chris. The Three’s Company aspects of it were funny as hell. The musical score was appropriate, and added to the romantic feel of the story. Mind you, it wasn’t the deepest or most original story, and you know more or less where it’ll end up, but it was fun watching it end up there, and the story moved so briskly that the first 80 minutes went by in what seemed like a heartbeat. Obviously, this is a good date movie, and a good choice for people who like romantic Cinderella stories, but is not for the overly cynical or jaded filmgoer.
NITS:
I wasn’t really looking for nits, but I noticed two: First, when Chris first meets Ty in the elevator, Ty rattles off an impressively detailed list of facts about Chris, including his political ambitions, voting history, etc. But just a bit later on top of that big boulder in Central Park with Chris and Marissa, Chris mentions that freezing up in front of a crowd is fatal in his business, and Ty asks what Chris does.
SPOILER WARNING: The following nit mentions some important points at the very end of the film.
In the epilogue sequence of magazine covers showing what happened to Chris and Marissa after the end of the movie, one shows Marissa as a hotel manager, with her three friends behind her as her management staff. A subsequent one shows Marissa and Chris "one year later and still going strong," or words to that effect. You mean she became a manager at her new hotel job within one year, after starting at the bottom all over again as a maid? I might’ve gone for a chronological sequence, and put that cover after the one indicating they were together "one year later," in order to show that her ascendance to that position took a bit longer than that. Or did Chris use his influence to get her a management job? If so, not a very good message, given Marissa’s statements about working hard and following one’s dreams, to have her attain that position simply through her high-powered boyfriend.
END SPOILER WARNING.
Sorry if my post was so long, but I had a handful of paper clips in my hand and couldn’t stop.
