In “Office Romance,” Jennifer Lopez portrays Jackie Cruz, the stylish and exacting chief executive of an airline. Apart from her second in command — the driven and very pregnant Sydney (Betty Gilpin) — the employees of AirCruz avoid eye contact or try to disappear down a hallway when Jackie is around; some even hold their breath until they are forced to surreptitiously gasp for air.
So, it’s a glimpse of her soft power when Jackie, who is piloting the plane, assures Daniel (Brett Goldstein), the company’s go-to attorney and her sole passenger, that the “grumpy weather” they are encountering on their way from New Jersey to the Dominican Republic is nothing to fret about.
As the engine whines, Jackie’s voice exudes an easy, earned confidence. Her first solo flight was at 13, and she has continued to pilot toward success the company that her instructor-dad (Edward James Olmos) started. “I will not let you fall out of the sky,” she tells jittery Daniel, in one of the rom-com’s better moments.
If only the screenwriters could have guaranteed the same for this movie about what happens when these two hard-working, by-the-book professionals find each other but run afoul of their company’s zero-tolerance policy on office relationships.
Instead, the writers Goldstein and Joe Kelly (his “Ted Lasso”/”Shrinking” colleague) attempt to cram a streaming season’s worth of character zigs — Jodie Whittaker plays Daniel’s incarcerated sister, Amy Sedaris appears as a too-kind hotel housekeeper — into a two-hour film. Alas, the landing isn’t smooth.
Office Romance Rated R for sexual material, language throughout and graphic nudity. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. Watch on Netflix.
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