Cleaning Up

Jenny from the crock: Jennifer Lopez picks out this weekâs image.

Jennifer Lopez plays down-to-earth to live out on-screen fantasy.

by Cindy Fuchs

She has great magnetism and an iconic quality. --Ralph Fiennes

All I know is that I hope people are rooting for me this time. --Jennifer Lopez. Jennifer Lopez can't forget to stay real. To her, it's like breathing. She doesn't want you to forget it either, as she keeps singing about just this subject. Recognizing the appeal of her fairy-tale princess career trajectory, the J. Lo machine has perfected a formula for making the point: She drops a realness-affirming single at the same time she's appearing in broadly unreal romantic comedies. So, for instance, she'll proclaim, "I'm Real" while starring in The Wedding Planner and planning a marriage, say, to Cris Judd. (The record and movie opened at the tops of their respective charts; the marriage did less well.)

This year, Lopez is working the same combination, with the release of a fourth album (This is Me ... Then, selling more than 314,000 copies the first week), a hit single ("Jenny from the Block," featuring homegirl with very real-looking MCs Jadakiss and Styles), a non-meltdown interview with Diane Sawyer concerning her big pink diamond from the Sexiest Man Alive and, of course, the feel-goody Cinderella movie, Maid in Manhattan.

Written by Kevin Wade (Working Girl, Meet Joe Black) and directed by Wayne Wang, this "ethnic" revision of Pretty Woman uses the "iconic" Lopez strategically. She plays Marisa Ventura, dedicated single mom, proud Bronx native, mostly respectful daughter, loyal friend. Every morning she rides the bus to school with her son Ty (Tyler Garcia Posey), then takes the subway to the Upper East Side, where she works as a maid at the upscale Beresford Hotel.

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Stunning in her form-fitting uniform, Marisa "strives to be invisible" and treats guests with utmost care and attention to detail. This sets up the film's basic Cultural Insight: rich, "upstairs" people are vain and selfish, and "downstairs" people -- including Marisa's maid-buddy Stephanie (Marissa Matrone) and butler/father-figure Lionel (Bob Hoskins) -- are earthy and compassionate. To illustrate: Marisa "creatively" leaves a bundle of lavender on the pillow of one notorious diva, but Caroline Lane (Natasha Richardson) only tosses it aside, distracted by a phone conversation about her favorite topic: her own ridiculous love life.

This moralized split is underlined by a raced one: The hotel clients and managers (those with speaking parts, anyway) are white, and the maids are mostly Latina, black and Asian. This makes the "us" and "them" dynamic more interesting to think about than it is to watch, in that the film assumes viewers' identification with the maids. This connection is somewhat mediated by the fact that Marisa's best friends are simple stereotypes -- for instance, the lusty "big black mama" -- but their central function is to boost Marisa. And she looks fabulous: diligent, reliable, smart and energetic.

And real, of course. Though she wants to apply for a management position, she also knows that maids are rarely moved up that particular ladder. When Stephanie submits an application for Marisa, her boss (Frances Conroy) sniffily agrees that she just might make the grade, because "anything is possible."

Whatever Marisa's ambitions, this distinction between classes remains in place until she meets the man of her dreams, a classically beautiful scion of a wealthy political family and U.S. Senate candidate-to-be, Chris Marshall (Ralph Fiennes). The crossing-over is helped by the fact that he walks in on Marisa while she's trying on Ms. Super Snob's Dolce & Gabbana white wool suit, and mistakes her for someone "like him."

That said, Chris is also coded as a "rebel" who might consider dating out of his class, when you see that he'd rather play with his dog than adhere to the schedule set up by his nitty manager, Jerry (Stanley Tucci, who has now, officially, played this type too often). Chris is the cardboardiest of Prince Charmings, hanging on every word that Marisa utters concerning life in the projects (because, she admits vaguely, she grew up around there, and besides, he's plainly clueless and happy being so), resiliently unaware that Marisa is lying to him for days and, once they share a blissful night together, willing to marry her even when he learns of her elaborate deception.

More tiresomely, Marisa's service-industry friends all aid in her deception, dressing her in a gorgeous gown, matching slippers and a Harry Winston necklace for a ball (or a fundraiser). Stephanie sends her on her way, teary with delight: "For one night, you're living it for all of us!"

Ah, yes. In the world of "Jenny from the Block," this is an earnest fantasy. Even if Lopez looks unreal, she really is real. No matter the entourage, the super-duper mainstream fiance, or the diva rep, she knows where she came from. "Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got," she sings. She's doing it for all of us.

Maid in Manhattan, Directed by Wayne Wang A Sony release, Opens Friday at area theaters

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