The closest Jennifer Lopez is likely to come to holding an Academy Award is when she dusts down the one on the mantlepiece that hubby-to-be Ben Affleck won for co-writing Good Will Hunting.

Lopez is as good an actress as she is a pop singer. All right, she's not awful, but she is pretty ordinary in just about anything she does (Out Of Sight, the thriller she starred in with George Clooney being the exception) and for some reason the public cannot seem to get enough of her.

Maid In Manhattan is unlikely to change that. It's an instantly forgettable romantic comedy with about as much charm as a motorway service station on a wet Wednesday afternoon.

Lopez plays Maris Ventura, a single mother working as a chambermaid at a plush Manhattan hotel.

Diligent and conscientious, she nevertheless likes to have fun and a sequence of events while trying on garments that belong to snooty socialite and hotel guest Caroline Lane (Natasha Richardson) leads to Marisa meeting handsome Republican senator Christopher Marshall (Fiennes).

The two hit it off immediately and romance threatens to break out of the closet. But Marisa fears Marshall will head for the hills as soon as he discovers this elegant young woman's true identity.

Anyone familiar with their fairy stories and pantomimes will realise Maid In Manhattan is a modern reworking of Cinderella. It could have been a cute, likeable rom-com, but is let down by an overdose of saccharine.

Lopez and Fiennes do all that is asked of them, but there is no chemistry between them, and with that element missing, the film hasn't a hope of succeeding.

Saving graces come in the form of two supporting roles an understated performance from Bob Hoskins as a valet at the hotel, and Stanley Tucci as the senator's exasperated aide.

Updated: 10:01 Friday, March 21, 2003