Office Romance review: Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein star in formulaic romcom | Films | Entertainment

If you asked ChatGPT the ingredients for the perfect romcom, it would probably spit out the creatives involved in this offering. Lead actress Jennifer Lopez has proved a hit in more than her fair share of films in the genre. Meanwhile, leading man Brett Goldstein has been setting female hearts aflutter since undertaking his award-winning turn as Roy Kent in Ted Lasso. Throw in director Ol Parker, who knows a thing or two about feel-good films, having helmed Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, and it would appear you have hit the romantic comedy jackpot.

Netflix clearly thought so as they are backing this offering, which, despite the star power involved, isn’t getting a cinema release. This is probably a good call. Movies like this tend to do well on streaming services as people sitting at home stumble upon them and this is far too hit and miss to guarantee cinema success.

Lopez plays Jackie Cruz, CEO of her family airline. It is a girl boss role she has played dozens of times before. Goldstein is Englishman Daniel Blanchflower, who is part of her company’s legal team.

Since they work in the same building a traditional meet cute is a bit trickier to orchestrate so when he is assigned to work with her they ensure the audience know he is attracted to her as he becomes aroused. It is a joke that is frequently revisited and it somewhat throws the film – they appear to be hoping to make a sweet, cute and sexy comedy yet feel the need to throw in the odd crude joke to show they are edgy.

As with all romcoms there has to be an obstacle to their relationship. In this case, it is the company policy which prevents co-workers from dating. Therefore, the couple must go to extreme lengths to keep their relationship secret.

Alongside this, Daniel has a jailbird sister, Lizzy, played by former Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker, who is keeping quiet. Whittaker, a brilliant actress, is wasted here. Her sole purpose as a character seems to be justifying Daniel’s reason for staying in America and you could cut out all her scenes and the film wouldn’t really lose anything.

The equally brilliant Betty Gilpin is also wasted as Jackie’s heavily pregnant assistant Sydney Bloom. She is merely there to share her cynicism about love and romance while intimidating Daniel. Indeed the entire excellent supporting cast, which also includes Bradley Whitford, Amy Sedaris and Edward James Olmos are all wasted – a victim of this romcom by numbers style of movie making.

There is also a rather bizarre and unfunny sub plot that involves Jackie having a fetish for all things English. It comes at a point where the attraction between the pair has already been established and in that one scene they reduce their romance to a kink making it harder to root for them as a couple.

Lopez and Goldstein have a brilliant chemistry and that is all that holds this together. While it does have some sweet and funny moments it also has a lot of peurile moments that simply don’t work and the whole thing just never really lands.

On paper this should have been brilliant but instead it is a bit of a mess that doesn’t seem to know who it’s audience is.