Office Romance

Grade: C

Office Romance has two trains of thought running through it, vying for dominance – and the wrong one wins. The director and screenwriting team are at odds with each other. Writers Brett Goldstein and Joe Kelly have worked on Ted Lasso, Shrinking, and How I Met Your Mother. They know how to keep a sitcom/series moving, and I suspect they are responsible for Office Romance’s wonderful first 10 minutes. It’s so funny, witty, and is a master class in perfect line deliveries. I paused it so many times to look up actors’ names, and research what they’ve done before.

It takes a noticeable turn after the opening credits. Most of the film’s remainder belongs to director Ol Parker (Ticket to Paradise). The plot machinery takes over, and it’s as standard a romantic comedy as can be. Ticket to Paradise had George Clooney and Julia Roberts bickering at a beautiful vacation spot. Office Romance has Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein at a beautiful vacation spot, talking about how they want to be together, but shouldn’t be, because they are co-workers. The camera circles them while they dance. 

Lopez is Jackie – the president and CEO of the fictional airline Air Cruz. Her usual lawyer (Bradley Whitford) has choked on a breakfast burrito, which puts him in the hospital and makes him unable to work. Enter Goldstein as Daniel, who will be Jackie’s interim lawyer. His British nationality is used as fodder for joke after joke about the cultural terminology barrier, with references to pounds, the pub, football (meaning soccer) – and apparently the C word can be a compliment on that side of the pond.

We are taken on a tour of the usual cutesy romcom beats. Daniel visits the HR office to discuss the rule about office fraternizing, and “isn’t that a bit much?” Immediately after exiting, Jackie enters the office, and the same dialogue repeats. “We can’t do this again” is the romantic comedy’s equivalent of “I’ll be right back” or “I won’t let anything happen to you” in a horror movie.

Halfway through the film, Daniel keeps something from Jackie. There’s absolutely no reason to be secretive about it, except to provide a second act conflict. However, this is where the movie’s early promise momentarily creeps back in, and events play out in ways I didn’t predict. She follows him around to see what’s up. I figured she would misunderstand everything, prolonging the forced narrative. But no – she learns the real deal, and it leads to an interesting scene. Betty Gilpin, who impressed me so much in The Hunt, pours everything into a thankless supporting role. There’s a perfectly-timed shock value inducing shot. We think it may be a one-off, but we see it again. The prosthetics department must have had fun.

The most merciful thing the movie does is spare us a silly epilogue and just end abruptly after the climactic scene. Something is allowed to transpire on live TV for a long time, followed by the inevitable happy ending. I’d had just about enough of Office Romance before it was halfway done, and I was ready for it to fly away.

Grade: C