‘Office Romance’ Review: A Likable But Uneven Throwback to the Golden Age of Rom-Coms (Netflix)

A romantic comedy so classic in its office setting that it’s called exactly that — Office Romance doesn’t aim to reinvent the genre, but manages, at least during its first hour, to generate a pleasant and mildly cheeky series of situations built around an obvious but unrealized romance between the CEO of an airline —played by Jennifer Lopez— and a lawyer who works for her, played by Brett Goldstein, who also co-wrote the film. But since company policy forbids it, well, they have no choice but to… hold out.

Jackie Cruz, the head of Air Cruz, is a woman consumed by her work who either doesn’t want or doesn’t have time for a personal or romantic life. Daniel Blanchflower is a lawyer who has relocated from London to the United States and operates, in his own way, by a similar philosophy: keep everything personal out of the office. An unusual set of circumstances —the company’s lead attorney, a somewhat underused Bradley Whitford, suffers a bizarre food-related accident— brings them together. Jackie needs Daniel to represent her in a lawsuit filed by a rival airline over a dispute involving gate usage at Dallas airport. And the man, the moment he lays eyes on her, is completely smitten — which doesn’t, at first glance, speak well of his ability to defend her.

But during a mediation with the rival airline, where the other side makes their biases abundantly clear —they’re dismissive, misogynistic, and insinuate bad faith— Daniel reveals genuine legal talent, and Jackie finds herself equally smitten. Still, a romance in these circumstances is more than a little complicated, and neither wants the trouble. Especially with Sydney (the excellent Betty Gilpin), Jackie’s very pregnant assistant, watching their every move. It’s obvious that sooner or later that line will be crossed, but while nothing happens and everyone is dying for it to (Daniel, in particular, makes his feelings embarrassingly obvious), the film is at its best.

Once that romantic and sexual dam breaks, Office Romance becomes more predictable, more routine, more conventional — despite the occasional offbeat scene (one involving a childbirth), some gags built around British-American cultural differences, and the increasingly odd behavior of several supporting characters, who from that point on tend to be funnier than the leads. Performers like Tony Hale, Amy Sedaris, Mary Wiseman, and Edward James Olmos add pleasing texture to a romantic-business story that, from here, travels along thoroughly predictable tracks, with the director of Ticket to Paradise, Ol Parker, giving the whole thing a faintly retro tint.

The same applies to the chemistry between Lopez and Goldstein, which seems to work better as something comedic than as something romantic — as if the best possible version of their relationship were, at bottom, a friendship. Once it tips the other way, that chemistry nearly vanishes, perhaps because the Ted Lasso actor operates in a single register and struggles, when the plot demands it, to play romantic vulnerability convincingly. J-Lo, a seasoned all-terrain operator in the romantic comedy, can do this kind of character almost without breaking a sweat. In fact, thinking about it, she barely breaks a sweat anywhere in the film.

Agreeable and more inventive than its generic English title might suggest, Office Romance probably won’t rescue the over-40 romantic comedy from the long decline it seems to have been heading toward for years — but on its own modest terms, it delivers exactly what it promises: a perfectly decent streaming weekend entertainment. It’s like going back to the 1990s or early 2000s, at least for a little while.