Pretty much the only thing missing from “Maid in Manhattan” is the glass slipper.

Shedding the brittle edge that made her so unlikable in her last couple of movies, Jennifer Lopez slips into Cinderella’s shoes and comes up with her best performance since “Out of Sight.” She’s a hotel maid, mistaken for a wealthy woman by a compassionate politician (Ralph Fiennes). After pretending to be who he thinks she is for one night, she must deal with the consequences of falling in love with a guy who doesn’t even know her real name.

Except for the fact that neither Rapunzel nor Snow White had sex on the first date, “Maid in Manhattan” is a fairy tale, and its breezy tone is maintained by a superb cast that includes Bob Hoskins, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Frances Conroy and Amy Sedaris as a society woman with the relationship skills of a coyote. Hoskins’ classy, grave performance gives the breezy unreality the perfect underpinning of gravity, and Fiennes puts the “charm” in Prince Charming.

Occasionally, the script ventures into territory that makes it seem like a different kind of fairy tale — a Republican who cares about poor people and the environment? ” and the dull direction seems more lead-footed than glass-footed. But the captivating performers are more than enough to give this Cinderella story a night at the ball.