Netflixable? Jo Lo & Co go Loooooow for Laughs — “Office Romance”

Brett Goldstein finally found something that audiences want to see him in beyond the World of Ted Lasso in a movie he co-wrote himself.

“Office Romance” may a strained, coarse and lowbrow rom-com that grasps for laughs via endless vulgarity. But a lot of people on Netflix are watching it, and as Jennifer Lopez long ago taught us, there’s no such thing as bad exposure.

Lopez co-stars in this flagrant violation of human resources policy, a kind of grinding/Grindr romp where she’s the boss of the airline her dad started and Goldstein is her new Brit lawyer who always needs a shave.

Jackie Cruz scares most of her Air Cruz subordinates, save for her right arm Sydney, played with vicious and vulgar bravado by Betty Gilpin. Jackie’s too busy for men and too glam to manage a sex life. She dresses to overkill in the classic J. Lo style.

But a competitor airline (run by Roger Bart) is suing her for poaching gates at a new terminal in Dallas. And that creep is paying private detectives to spy on Jackie’s private life to blackmail her into backing down.

When her over-the-top attack dog head of legal affairs (Bradley Whitford, going for the gusto) has a comical medical emergency, it’s up to new counsel Daniel Blanchflower (Goldstein) to take over.

The first AWFUL scene in this clumsy Ol Parker (“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”) comedy has our buttoned down Brit getting a comical erection when client and counsel first meet. Jackie’s scripted reaction to this special effects boner is just as “off” as the gag itself.

It’s kind of all downhill after that, as the attorney seems out of his depth but isn’t and the boss shares his attraction and contrives to find a way to see if they can act on it.

There’s nothing particularly realistic about anything here, and the whole power dynamics of sexual harassment — the entire reason for HR “no office romances” rules — is utterly ignored.

Instead, we get lame fish-out-of-limey-water gags like attorney Blanchwater explaining to HR (Tony Hale, of course) the many “British” meanings of the C-word, a bit Goldstein borrowed from George Carlin and adapted for Britain’s favorite expletive.

It’s nice seeing Lopez re-teamed with her “father” from her breakout film, “Selena,” Edward James Olmos. But aside from that…

Even a bit about Blanchwater’s “secret” sister (Jodie Whittaker), stuck in an American prison, crosses the line from “funny” to “let’s shock our way to laughs.”

Yes, some of the shock-jokes land. But “Office Romance” only finds its comfort zone in Lopez’s costume changes and constant reminders of how beautiful she still is. That’s in her contract.

Naturally there’s a beachside bikini scene, post coital (she’s putting her swimsuit back on), in which Jackie complains about all the places sand just got shoved into.

Yeah. It’s like that.

Rating: R, sex, some nudity and endless coarse profanity and innuendo

Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Brett Goldstein, Betty Gilpin, Bradley Whitford, Jodie Whittaker, Tony Hale and Edward James Olmos.

Credits: Directed by Ol Parker, scripted by Brett Goldstein and . A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:54

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About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine
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