Gabrielle Union tries her hand at “rebranding” after 40 with “The Perfect Find,” a sexed-up rom-com from the director of “Jezebel.”

Her instincts are as sharp as ever. But this contrived “Gabrielle Gets Her Groove Back” is very much a mixed bag. She’s still an inviting, engaging screen presence with a light touch. And it’s a film that overcomes the “work in New York fashion” cliche with a few real insights on how “trends” are manufactured these days.

But virtually every story beat about her character tumbling into attraction, diving into romance and backing away from it — every fight and almost every obstacle put in the way of that romance arrives abruptly and seems arbitrary. They’re requirements from the Rules of Rom-Com Screenplays, not organic give-and-take hills, dips and curves of the love roller-coaster.

Union plays Jenna Jones, formerly the pretty half of “New York’s most stylish couple.” That ended ugly after ten years, and Jenna finds herself over 40, unemployed, an “It” girl influencer turned Old News.

After Mom kicks her out of the house, she heads back to The City to start over, begging an old rival, Darcy (Gina Torres, bitchy-funny) for work at her “Darzine.”

The effortlessly-stylish Jenna and her fashionista eye are set to climb that mountain again. But she finds herself “making out with a fetus” at a party. That “fetus” turns out to be Darcy’s film school alumna son Eric (Keith Powers, years past TV’s “Faking It”). He is Mom’s choice to be Darzine’s new videographer.

“There’s nothing wrong with Black nepotism,” Jenna enthuses.

But can they “work” together in the face of this steam heat that the script ordains?

“We’re professionals! We do our jobs, not each other!”

Union’s brand has always been smart, erudite and classy, and while the almost-graphic discussions of sex and genitalia she and her girlfriends giggle over and she and Eric flirt with doesn’t tarnish that, it’s not a natural fit.

Still, I like the tentative way Union’s character treats the age difference, a woman who wants “family” with a 24-or-so year-old filmmaker who isn’t on that track. It feels real.

The rest? Pretty much all contrived. Jenna has two BFFs. So does Eric. First his ex, then hers, re-enters the picture. And on and on veteran TV series screenwriters Leigh Davenport and Tia Williams go, trotting through the tropes of the genre. Director Numa Perrier only seems comfy with the serious and sexual stuff, not the comedy.

The jokes about “40something, single and mean” being a Black female stereotype from “Tyler Perry movies,” and young men’s passion for that “BBL aesthetic” land.

Union is on her game, and the movie’s affection for Black fashion icons of history — Eartha, Josephine and “The Black Garbo” — is a great hook to hang the “fashion” element of the story on.

But too much of what’s here is over-familiar, and the “familiar” isn’t anything anybody would get all sentimental over.

Rating: TV-MA, sex, profanity

Cast: Gabrielle Union, Keith Powers, Gina Torres, D.B. Woodside

Credits: Directed by Numa Perrier, scripted by Leigh Davenport and Tia Williams  A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:39