Office Romance plus Short Takes on other cinematic topics
This Ain’t No “Third-Rate Romance”*
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [or near purple] is a link to something in the above title or the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)
However, if you’d like to know more about rationale of my ratings visit this explanatory site.
Office Romance (Ol Parker) rated R 114 min.
Here’s the trailer:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size;
activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
WHAT HAPPENS: Jackie Cruz (Jennifer Lopez) is the work-driven CEO of AirCruz, a growing airline founded by her father, Captain Jack Cruz (Edward James Olmos), so she constantly has to answer to her Board and Dad, with frequent accusations she’s not fit for the job. Yet, she arranges with a honcho at the massive Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport to acquire a large number of gates previously promised to Falcon, another airline, leading to their CEO, William Butten (Roger Bart), to sue her with the accusation the switch came about due to her sexual availability. Jackie says she’s had no sex for years, focusing her entire life on her job, but when it’s deposition time her cut-throat lawyer, Peter Vance (Bradley Whitford), becomes temporarily incapacitated due to choking on a big piece of sausage in a breakfast burrito so she turns to new hire Brit Daniel Blanchflower (Brett Goldstein)—who’s in the U.S. to help his wayward sister, Lizzy (Jodie Whittaker), jailed for cutting a man’s head off with a machete, although her brother’s shown his skills by getting her execution sentence reduced to life; he surprises Jackie with his expertise, then embarrasses himself by getting an erection when shaking hands with her in her office. That transgression’s forgiven, soon they’re off together to another deposition in the Dominican Republic where the office’s iron-clad policy of no employee fraternization’s put aside as their mutual attraction’s made manifest in bed. When they return to New Jersey headquarters they do their best to keep their affair secret, but there are many suspicions, especially from Jackie's chief assistant, Sydney Bloom (Betty Gilpin).
It all goes bad for Jackie and Daniel, though, when Falcon Airlines Butten shows her photos taken by his secret spy, Julie Schatz (Amy Sedaris)—posing as a maid at their Caribbean hotel—of Jackie and Daniel in romantic embrace undercutting her assertion of no sex interfering with business, so she’s prepared to call a big press conference to resign as CEO, sell her airline to Falcon. ⇒Daniel, somehow overcoming a traffic jam in the Holland Tunnel to arrive at the event, saves the day by declaring his love for Jackie, convincing her on the spot not to step down or sell, and condemning the no-romantic-business-attractions in their company's HR policy. As this all quickly winds down, we find Jackie and Daniel are set to be married while the credits run parallel to funny confessions to HR Director George Dudek (Tony Hale) from a number of AirCruz employees about their sexual encounters with each other despite the previous corporate no-hanky-panky policy.⇐ I’ve tried to keep this section reasonably short, but more plot details (well, a few more) can be found at this site.
SO WHAT? My current caution-about-contracting-a-deadly-virus-in-a-crowded-movie-theater policy (even as it gets severely challenged by fare such as Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day which I really want to see but know that “crowded” would clearly be the case with something that’s already piled up $44.5 million just since last weekend [worldwide $98,2 million] so each showing must be quite full) is getting to be a problem in finding some really interesting stuff on streaming for me to enjoy, you to enjoy reading what I have to say about it, so I keep hoping I can maintain that marvelous streak of 6-in-a-row postings with a 4-stars subject of analysis. I thought I’d be safely in that realm last weekend when I came across Tuner (Daniel Roher) with its solid CCAL support (Rotten Tomatoes positives 94%, Metacritic 75% average score) which has been out since May 22, 2026 so when various Internet sources said it’s available via Fandango at Home I went through the tedious process of adding this platform to my Roku device, then found all I could do is preorder it ($24.99!) in anticipation of a streaming release date yet to be determined, so I will have it for you at some point, though I don’t know when. Considerable recent digging, though, has turned up a couple of intriguing possibilities for me to watch this weekend, so we’ll see how it all works out.
Last weekend, though, not much was popping up (especially in the 4-stars range) until I stumbled upon Office Romance which gave me hope for positive possibilities based on my interest in the lead actors (Lopez from many past appearances, Goldstein for his successful work on Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso series [2020-‘23; new season scheduled for August 5, 2026] for which he won 2 Primetime Emmys as Outstanding Supporting Actor; he also co-wrote this current screenplay along with Joe Kelly [a co-developer of Ted Lasso]), along with the desire to spend some time with a silly romcom to help take my mind off the daily doses of unbelievable idiocy coming from the Trump administration. I admit the strong negatives from the OCCU (details below) gave me pause, but with little else to turn to I plowed ahead anyway, was generally pleased with what I saw, despite the easy predictability of the situations along with some dangling plot details (How did Daniel get out of that Holland Tunnel mess so quickly?). There’s nothing new nor surprising here (which ultimately undercut my 4-stars quest), but it is a most pleasant diversion—including British and American takes on the word “cunt.”
BOTTOM LINE FINAL COMMENTS: You'll find Office Romance to be a streaming-only presentation so head to Netflix if you’re a subscriber or are willing to pay $8.99 for a month of access (with ads) or $19.99 (no ads), after which you can stick around or opt out. This is one of those situations (not too infrequent) where I’m considerably more supportive than the OCCU, with Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at a near-dismissive 48%, Metacritic average score at a surprisingly-higher 52%. Among those who join in with my response, though, is Stephanie Zacharek (MC 70, same as my 3½ of 5 stars) of TIME who says: “And the truth is, you don’t even have to like Lopez to enjoy Office Romance, which breezes along on a current of enjoyable gags and reasonably lively banter. […] Office Romance imagines other possibilities, and recognizes the reality that people very often fall in love against their better judgment—and it can happen in the workplace as easily as anywhere else. To what degree can we, or should we, regulate the vagaries of the human heart? That’s a bigger question than ‘How does Jennifer Lopez get her skin to glow like that?’ though you could file them both under Eternal Mysteries.” Yet, more along the lines of the critical community’s overall response is Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter (MC 40): “Regardless of whether we believe in Jackie and Daniel’s connection, the script dictates that they do — and so, after the pro forma third-act crisis, it all comes to a head with a grand romantic gesture. But here, too, we’re reminded that the truest romance Office Romance knows is with the office. In this universe, ‘I love you’ is followed immediately by ‘I want to work with you,’ and then some unearned blather about how when you really think about it, your employees are like your family. For some, I guess, that could qualify as a happy ending. Myself, I’d rather go back to not dreaming of labor.”
You might choose to explore it (title does say it all), but I found it charming, quite funny at times, and certainly a visual treat with both of the lead actors. To wrap up, here’s my usual Musical Metaphor, this time Bob Dylan’s "I Want You" (1966 Blonde on Blonde album) which I take directly from the movie's soundtrack (where it’s sung by someone I don’t know so I retreat to the original) which speaks directly to the lead characters’ unbridled desire for each other: “I want you, so bad / Honey, I want you.” Maybe you’ll want to watch this movie, maybe you won’t, yet if you don’t just remember the filmmakers’ lament: “But it’s not that way / I wasn’t born to lose you,” third-rate romance or not.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
I’ll go full-circle back to the Amazing Rhythm Aces because that link I put in the beginning is from a performance for PBS TV’s Austin City Limits; I was in the audience for this band at one of those tapings in around 1975 or ’76, but I don’t know if what we see here is what I attended or is the group singing again at a later date. I don’t locate myself in this audience, but if you do please let me know.
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