Office romances are a rich field for romantic comedies. It’s a place where opposites attract (Desk Set, Woman Of The Year), the proximity brings two unlikely personalities together (The Apartment, Set It Up), and where gender norms can get skewered as women ascend corporate ladders (Working Girl, The Proposal). It’s a topic with a lot of potential but is underexplored in Goldstein and Joe Kelly’s script. It barely feels like an office space, just a place where dozens of people are forced to congregate for superfluous meetings so they can ask each other, “Are we overthinking this?” Time and again, characters overshare to the point where it seems like no one knows how to talk to other people, and those moments of cringe make up the majority of the movie’s jokes. It’s an unfunny bit the first time, and it doesn’t get funnier the 12th time it happens. There are a few jokes about the cultural differences between Daniel’s British mannerisms and his American colleagues’, but it gets uncomfortable when Jackie’s revealed to be an Anglophile with a serious obsession with all things Britannia. Maybe it’s because British culture is one of the few still socially acceptable to fetishize, but it’s like a joke from a movie decades earlier and is played for some cheap laughs.
Parker, who’s no stranger to romantic comedies after helming Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and the Julia Roberts and Goerge Clooney comedy Ticket To Paradise, plays certain hits just like old times: island escapes set to swelling music as our lovers fall into each other’s arms, some comedic misdirection at the beginning revealing both Jackie and Daniel on going on two bad first dates with other people, and one of the leads blurting out declarations of love in front of a room full of bystanders. But there’s some scenes that make little sense, like a running joke that everyone fears Jackie, but no one seemed to pass on that memo to Lopez, who plays one of the nicest characters of her career. Even her “mean” side isn’t that intimidating. While Goldstein is playing lovestruck for the camera (including an embarrassing surprise erection in the office), his performance comes across as a bit flat unless he’s hamming it up for Lopez. After a bumpy 2024 with This Is Me… Now and getting overlooked in the unjustly underseen remake of Kiss Of The Spider Woman, Lopez is placed on a pedestal so high in Office Romance, she’s unable to make the role her own. Considering the bubbly, flirtatious energy she brought to romantic comedies like Maid In Manhattan, The Wedding Planner, Monster-In-Law, and the American remake of Shall We Dance?, it’s disappointing to see Lopez miss this mark.
One of the saving graces of Office Romance lies with Lopez and Goldstein’s colleagues, an assembly of supporting players that pick up the energy whenever the leading couple isn’t stealing kisses and thrusts in the elevator. Betty Gilpin takes over almost every scene she’s in as Jackie’s work-obsessed pregnant deputy, and Tony Hale briefly appears as the company’s long-suffering HR manager. There’s a painfully obvious intrusion by the private detective Amy Sedaris plays that somehow neither Daniel nor Jackie seem to pick up on, and while it was moving to see Lopez reunite with her Selena costar Edward James Olmos once again as daughter and father, their dynamic is only briefly explored at the end, even though their story is central to how she became the leader of her father’s company. Unfortunately, with a great cast comes great responsibility, and some of these talented performers are used to extended unfunny gags well past their expiration date, including Aly Stroker as one of Daniel’s officemates coaching him how to weirdly breathe around Jackie so not to offend her and Bradley Whitford’s yell-happy lawyer who clearly won’t last long onscreen. Then there’s a birthing scene so painfully unfunny even the queen of the reaction shot, Gilpin, can’t salvage the bad writing.
Charming as it tries to be, there’s an unmistakable sense of misogyny in Office Romance that gets in the way of falling in love with the movie. The film’s central premise is that Jackie is in trouble for taking a business dinner when her competitor accuses her of offering sex or bribes to win him over to her deal. This court case lasts almost the entirety of the movie and looms over her relationship with Daniel. There’s not enough dialogue to dispel the misogyny of the accusation, nor is there any respect for what consenting adults do on their own time. Once again, marriage is celebrated as the goal––one character deems a relationship “above the board” once the news is announced––whereas a relationship is a hazard and if it doesn’t end with a diamond ring, it’s too risky and unworthy. This antiquated idea continues to show up in romantic comedies, even in ones about a woman CEO, but it’s one best left at the altar.
Director: Ol Parker
Writer: Brett Goldstein, Joe Kelly
Starring: Jennifer Lopez, Brett Goldstein, Betty Gilpin
Release Date: June 5, 2026
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