By Andrea Genovese Soares (December 16, 2002)

The romantic comedy "Maid in Manhattan," directed by Wayne Wang, is much more than a movie about the struggle of Latin-American immigrants in the working classes. It’s about self-discovery and realizing that what you do doesn’t define who you are. It’s about acknowledging the men and women who have the character required to serve others without being a servant.

Jennifer Lopez plays Marisa Ventura, a divorced Latin-American maid who works in a classy New York City hotel. Every morning, she helps her little boy, Tay Ventura, beautifully played by Tyler Posey, get ready for school to where she takes a bus and drops him off. Then, she takes the metro, grabs a bite to eat "on the go" and hurries to punch in at precisely 8 a.m. She changes into her maid uniform and becomes the most creative, caring, and hard-working maid in the hotel. Her life is wonderfully disrupted by her acquaintance with Cristopher Marshall, played by Ralph Fiennes. 

J-Lo efficiently gets the message across, perfectly portraying a Hispanic woman. In her relationship with her son she represents the strong family ties present in Hispanic families. I believe she was the perfect actress for this part. 

A movie can only characterize a person through their job, or by how they act, but people are much more than that. People have dreams, hopes, and beliefs, not only jobs and material aspirations. Sometimes we don’t realize that life is like a movie in that you see only the surface. Sometimes we are merely spectators of a movie when we should be submerging ourselves in the immeasurable depth of a person’s personality. In the beginning, Marisa is just a maid who leads a tough life. We only see an outer person, someone who has a job and a kid. In the end, we discover that she is much more profound, just like this movie.