There are a few things you can reasonably expect from Office Romance, the Netlix romantic comedy in which Jennifer Lopez plays the CEO of a successful airline—she’s also a pilot, lest there be any doubts about her overachieving nature—who falls in love with one of her employees, a charming, funny British lawyer played by Brett Goldstein. You’ll find a great deal of NSFW banter, and even a highly inappropriate workplace erection. There’s a no-nonsense second banana, played by national treasure Betty Gilpin, who gets laughs as a heavily pregnant executive assistant who loves her job so much she plans return to work the day after her baby is born. And if you’ve come to Office Romance expecting Jennifer Lopez to look, in typical J. Lo fashion, ageless in an otherworldly way, you’re in for zero surprises. Her skin will have you clamoring to know what kind of illuminator she uses. Her exquisitely blown-out hair falls around her shoulders like sheets of silken honey. Her office outfits include luxe, drapey sweaters and silk charmeuse skirts that swirl around her goddess curves like a dry-clean-only caress. You can love or hate Jennifer Lopez, but the one thing you cannot do is dial down her glow factor. It ought to be enshrined in the Smithsonian.
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. Lopez’s Jackie Cruz, who struts into work every day in don’t-mess-with-me stiletto heels, is both feared and respected by her employees. They all call her Ms. Cruz, never Jackie. She has guided her company, AirCruz, to extreme profitability. Still, she finds herself in the shadow of the company’s founder, Edward James Olmos’ Captain Jack Cruz, who also happens to be her father. He’s a gruff war hero who taught Jackie how to fly as a kid, and he still sits on the company’s…
