I’m a romcom junkie. Good romantic comedies are just about the hardest things to make in the movies. All the way back to Gable and Colbert it’s been a very hard genre. Making the audience laugh, while caring for the two characters, putting obstacles in the way of the romance, following the (often) formulaic Cinderella recipe while keeping the story fresh and entertaining. There is often a dog and/or a precocious child somewhere in the mix. If a kid doesn’t fit the story, there’ll be a quirky best friend playing cupid: ‘Sleepless in Seattle’, ‘You’ve got Mail’, ‘The American President’, ‘Pretty Woman’.
So I saw Maid in Manhattan yesterday. And I’m surprised on a few levels. Yes, of course it was formulaic. The plot points were signaled a mile away. The kid is adorable and quirky. Her best friend is quirky and rowdy. His best friend and advisor is bordering on hysteria. The paternal figure is supportive of her to the point of quitting his job when she does. And of course, there is a dog.
J.Lo’s public persona is bordering on obnoxious. The whole noveau riche style is far from flattering. Her comments and interviews are the media is strange, sometimes dangerously close to bizarre. A couple of years ago, I was a a perty in her honor. It was in Stockholm and her record company had booked a very large restaurant where she was going to attend the party celebrating the release of her new video. Ms Lopez would of course not interact with us 900 mere mortals who were invited. In the restaurant, there was a fenced off area, where everything was white. The normal furniture was chucked out and replaced by white chairs, tables, carpets, flowers… Everything was white. When she finally arrived, through a back door, she came in, all dressed in white, sat on a chair and sipped some champagne, while the ‘bold and the beautiful’ of the Stockholm nightlife tried to catch a glimpse of her, from 30 feet away. I had left a lot earlier, since the place was just too crowded. Friends who stayed said that the whole thing was just BS, though it generated a buzz in the media, and I suppose the record comapny was happy with that.
But I loved ‘Maid in Manhattan’. Lopez is totally believable as a 30 something single mom. She might not be Oscar™ material, but in this and other movies where I’ve seen her, she always does quite a good job. I found her adorable in this movie. Good looking, charming, friendly, proud. The whole story is of course improbable bordering on stupid, but that’s why there are romcoms.
She or her agent can’t be unaware about the amount of highly acidic vitriol that’s projectile vomited in her direction. Seeing that she capable of portraying a lovable person on the screen, I find it strange that she wouldn’t do that with her private life. It would seem that she would have a much easier time if she came across as a nice person, about the same way people perceive Jennifer Anniston, maybe.
To me, it’s all very strange. Does the media portray her as a callous bitch, without any grounds? I don’t think so. Is she really that stupid? I don’t think so either. For me, she’s a riddle, that I can’t figure out. Any doper who can shed some light?
