Jackie, President and CEO of Air Cruz, runs a tight ship in her business, including a rigid anti-fraternization policy for all her employees. When a new sexy lawyer begins working for her, that policy becomes very tested.
Chuck says:
Jackie Cruz (Jennifer Lopez) is the domineering head of Cruz Airlines. Except for her overly protective assistant Sydney (Betty Gilpin), all her other employees are intimidated by her. However, her imposing demeanor is a façade, a haughty persona she’s adopted in an effort to appear imposing and in control. Having been given the company to run by her father (Edward James Olmos), she’s always gone out of her way to overcome the whispers regarding nepotism she knows are spoken behind her back.
Daniel Blanchflower (Brett Goldstein), an attorney from England who’s just been hired in the corporation’s legal department, is unaware of all of this. So, when he’s called in at the last minute to attend a deposition with Cruz, he’s ill-prepared both in dealing with his boss and the case. Thankfully, it’s a frivolous matter, he handles it with aplomb, she’s impressed and the stage is set for sparks to fly between them.
The romantic path the two characters follow is predictable, but that’s to be expected in films of this sort. Where Goldstein and his co-writer Joe Kelly err is by including so many raunchy moments along the way, instances of crude humor that again and again clash with the rom-com vibe. Cruz and Blanchflower’s first handshake results in an embarrassing physical reaction for him that’s cringy rather than funny, while other lewd comments throughout might make you wonder if you’ve wandered into a men’s locker room. While a few scenes with an HR rep played by Tony Hale are effective, due to the actor’s hilarious responses to the egregious breeches in company policy, a post credits sequence involving a series of increasingly crass visits to his office takes the gag too far, leaving a bad taste. I’m not even going to mention the quick shot of a crowning baby during an inconvenient in office birth involving Sydney.
There’s a sense throughout that everyone is trying a bit too hard to make all this work. The ribald humor is over the top, many of the other “funny” moments are forced and most of the supporting characters are broadly rendered, coming off as caricatures rather than genuine people. While this may have worked in a bygone age, it all comes off as a calculated exercise that falls woefully short of being either funny or romantic.
There’s an almost-not-quite feel where the two leads are concerned as well. Lopez’s off-screen domineering persona looms large here. While the actress was able to convey a sense of vulnerability while relatively unknown in “Maid in Manhattan,” it’s hard to accept her in a similar vein what with all we’ve come to know about her. To be sure, that’s not fair yet it’s an issue the film can’t get around. Meanwhile, Goldstein seems a bit out of his element here, a step behind his co-star throughout, never quite finding the groove to generate the kind of spark with Lopez necessary to put this over. In the end, “Romance” reveals itself to be nothing but a collection of ill-conceived ideas and awkward moments.
2 Stars
