Entertaining ‘Office Romance’ gets the job done
With so many white-collar employees now telecommuting, the concept of romancing a co-worker is becoming a rarity, rendering J.Lo’s new Netflix rom-com, “Office Romance,” a bit of a relic, much like Jennifer Lopez herself. It’s time for her to give up the ghost and start challenging herself with age-appropriate dramas like “Hustlers” as her reign as a rom-com queen reaches an end.
This latest vehicle gives her the chance to bow out, not just gracefully but as a winner. By no means is “Office Romance” a return to her peak form in “Maid in Manhattan” or “The Wedding Planner,” but it is a significant rung above her recent misfires, “Marry Me” and “Shotgun Wedding.” In fact, there’s not a nuptial to be had. Instead, there’s real chemistry between her and the dashing British comedian Brett Goldstein, perfectly cast as a subordinate to J.Lo’s high-powered airline CEO, Jackie Cruz. It’s sort of “Fifty Shades of Grey” in reverse, with Jackie at the controls – both in the cockpit and the bedroom – during a romantic business trip to the Dominican Republic.
Alas, if word ever got out about their taste of the forbidden fruit in the land of mangos, they’d both be in the unemployment line because at Air Cruz, co-workers are not allowed to bump ugli(s). This, natch, leads to many an awkward situation back at Cruz headquarters in New Jersey, where Jackie and Goldstein’s corporate attorney, Daniel Blanchflower, are working closely together to settle a lawsuit accusing her of having slept her way to securing 10 gates at DFW airport.
We know the charge is bogus because Jackie’s sassy, very pregnant assistant, Sydney Bloom (an excellent Betty Gilpin), is constantly reminding her workaholic boss that she hasn’t been laid in four years. That celibacy is also her trump card if the suit goes to trial. Ergo, making what happened in Santo Domingo even more dire because if the plaintiff, William Butten (Roger Bart), head of a rival airline, ever found out, Jackie would not only lose the case but also all the gates key to her company’s expansion into Dallas.
OK, the plot concocted by “Ted Lasso” mates Joe Kelly and Goldstein isn’t the least bit plausible, but it’s essential to romanticizing a taboo that has ended many a career, most often that of the subordinate. Neither the writers nor director Ol Parker (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) is all that interested in commenting on the power dynamics involved. If anything, the onus is on Jackie, who is more likely to lose her job than Daniel. Although it would have been nice if it offered more complexity, not to the level of “Fair Play,” another Netflix offering, but something beyond a Judd Apatow-ish treatment that prioritizes crude humor over brains.
As such, the jokes and one-liners are decidedly hit-or-miss, most of them of a sexual nature, thus securing the film’s R rating. Oddly, we never really see Jackie and Daniel “doing it.” It’s nearly all seduction and postcoital endearments that are charming, but woefully slight. There’s also a decided screwball element that’s quaint but wan, including a superfluous subplot about Daniel’s sister, Lizzy (Jodie Whittaker), being imprisoned for cutting off the head of her ex-lover.
Still, you cannot take your eyes off the two leads, who are so darn attractive. The heat they generate is comparable to what Lopez stoked opposite Matthew McCaughney in “The Wedding Planner” and George Clooney in “Out of Sight,” the film that made her a bona fide movie star. Gilpin, too, leaves an impression with her take on Sydney, the sharp-tongued assistant and best friend to Jackie. And kudos to Tony Hale, like Goldstein, a multiple Emmy winner, for doing a lot with a small role as a beleaguered HR director refusing to bend the company’s strict “no-dating” rules.
Two characters we could have done without are Bradley Whitford’s Peter Vance, the smug, obstreperous attorney Daniel replaces in defending the lawsuit against Jackie; and Edward James Olmos as Jackie’s father, Captain Jack Cruz, the airline’s founder and emeritus board member who continues to treat his daughter like the 10-year-old he taught well enough to earn her pilot’s license by age 14. Theirs is an interesting relationship that, like most of “Office Romance,” goes unexplored.
At nearly two hours, it inevitably starts to drag. But for straight-to-streaming fare, you could do a lot worse. It’s one of those movies you can watch while doing the household chores and not miss a thing. Better yet, is the opportunity to see J.Lo return to top form in a genre that has always been her comfort zone. But please, please, please let this be the end of it.
Movie review
Office Romance
Rated: R for graphic nudity, sexual material, language throughout
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Brett Goldstein, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford, Amy Sedaris, Tony Hale, Edward James Olmos and Will Sasso
Director: Ol Parker
Writer: Joe Kelly and Brett Goldstein
Runtime: 118 minutes
Where: In theaters June 5 (limited); streaming on Netflix on June 5
Grade: B-
