Office Romance (2026)
If Jennifer Lopez hasn’t been officially crowned the queen of romantic comedies, perhaps Office Romance will put her over the top. Following early 2000s classics like The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Monster-in-Law (2005), The Back-Up Plan (2010), and more recently Marry Me (2022), and Shotgun Wedding (2022), we’re happy to announce that she’s back again opposite Brett Goldstein in Netflix’s smash hit Office Romance (2026).
You will recognize the handsome and versatile Goldstein as Ted Lasso’s (2020- ) gruff and brooding veteran footballer-turned-coach Roy Kent and the soft-spoken hunk, devoted boyfriend-turned-husband opposite Ricky Gervais in Netflix’s Derek (2012-2014). Goldstein also does double duty as Office Romance’s co-writer alongside Joe Kelly. In this dual role Goldstein stands as a powerful testament about manifestation. What do we mean? Well, he and Kelly wrote the role of Jackie Cruz for Lopez and sent the script to her with a note that stated that they would not make the film without her. Now, that’s how it’s done!
To his credit, the on-screen chemistry Goldstein predicted for his pairing with Lopez is evident throughout the film which is a mixture of subtle, laugh-out-loud, and aggressive boundary breaking sexually- and corporeally-explicit humour. Yes, there’s nudity folks, but definitely not what you’d expect!
As one would predict, Office Romance largely revolves around an office. More unexpectedly, the romance is between an older woman (Lopez’s Jackie Cruz, 50s) and younger man (Goldstein’s Daniel Blanhflower, 40s). But to its credit, the film’s central will-they-won’t-they, should-they-shouldn’t-they dilemma does not revolve around their age gap. Instead, it hinges on the fact that Jackie is Daniel’s boss at an airline that has a strict policy against employees having romantic relationships.
Jackie is a fit, fabulous, and fierce business executive who has successfully stepped into the role of CEO at Air Cruz, a company started by her demanding and arrogant father, Captain Jack Cruz (Edward James Olmos) who disparagingly refers to Jackie as gordita (little fat one/chubby) in front of their board. While her vibe is ultra professional, and tough but fair, her employees respect and fear her. So, when Daniel is summoned to take over as lead attorney on a lawsuit when Air Cruz’s head of legal, the cantankerous Peter Vance (Bradley Whitford), is hospitalized after choking on his breakfast burrito, his colleagues warn him how to stand, speak, and even breathe (through the corner of his mouth) in Jackie’s presence.
Their initial face-to-face meeting is comic gold as Daniel is so overwhelmed by his desire for Jackie that he can’t disguise the huge erection that bulges in his suit trousers after he shakes her hand. To say he is head over heels is an understatement! For her part, we quickly come to find out that Jackie has turned off the romantic side of her life after a devastating betrayal. But the charming and socially inept Daniel with his dashing English accent is too much for her to resist.
The supporting characters in the film are more than fillers; they’re scene stealers who hilariously reveal their own awkward habits and sensibilities and work to flesh out the quirks of Jackie and Daniel. Three standouts are Daniel’s pale, white, redhead assistant Clair (Mary Wiseman) who is desperate to engage with the frosty Brit on a more than boss-employee level. Tony Hale is also fantastic as Air Cruz’s head of HR, George Dudek. But the source of the biggest laughs from a supporting character come from Betty Gilpin who plays Jackie’s devoted and indispensable executive assistant, Sydney Bloom.
When Jackie and Daniel begin to circle each other, it is Sydney who sniffs out their inappropriate romance from the start, warning Daniel off with hilariously worded, degrading, and threating insults. Her devotion is also a source of humour because the very pregnant and artificially inseminated Sydney (we know this because she and Jackie trade barbs about whose life is more pathetic and sexless), refuses to stop working to prepare for her child’s birth and has the misfortune of going into labour in Daniel’s office during which he and Jackie eventually deliver her daughter after a full frontal reveal of the baby’s head protruding from her vagina. The scene is powerful and powerfully funny for the ways that it simultaneously reclaims the vagina as life-giving force as opposed to how it’s usually represented as a singular source of male heterosexual pleasure. The exuberant humour is also evident because of how a completely unprepared Sydney screeches at Daniel to take the baby out of her.
As with all great love stories, Jackie and Daniel have to withstand obstacles like multiple lawsuits, a meddling Sydney, and the company’s strict non-fraternizing policy, to be together. They must also overcome Daniel’s half-truths about his hilarious, incarcerated sister Lizzy (Jodie Whittaker), which trigger Jackie’s memories of her previously unfaithful partner and a devastating breakup.
The film is largely set in the Air Cruz offices in New Jersey, but with a significant romantic departure to the Dominican Republic after Jackie taps Daniel to run point on a legal case. Poignantly, it is Jackie who flies them to the tropical Caribbean paradise in a very small, not-at-all-impressive-looking Cessna Grand Caravan. When a fearful Daniel begins to panic as they pass through a storm, Jackie calms him by assuring him that she won’t let him “fall out of the sky”. The brief scenes in the Dominican Republic are picturesque, but the film misses big time when Jackie and Daniel dine at an open-air restaurant where the musical group does not reflect the full spectrum of African Latino beauty and the songs they perform are bizarre pop knockoffs. What would have been much more captivating is to accurately represent the beautiful, largely African-Latino population of the island and their musical dominance in Latin genres like merengue and bachata. This is an obvious misstep for the movie’s official soundtrack.
While the narrative structure of the film is quite typical of other rom-coms – hesitant beginning, back-to-back misunderstandings, desperate attempts to resist their feelings, delightful surrender, unforeseen obstacles etc. – the story, cast, and characters contribute to a jubilant and humourous film which also has its share of tender moments. What’s more, can we state the obvious? Jennifer Lopez is a gorgeous, fifty-something, woman of colour cast as the leading lady, the desired one, the love interest, and not the mom, grand mom, best friend or side kick. And what’s more, the fact that the film is #1 on Netflix in over 60 countries disproves the lie that audiences only want to see white female, under-fed, 20-somethings in leading-lady romantic roles. Hallelujah!
Hint: Do stay for the credits because, in a scene reminiscent of Denis O’Hare’s immigration official Mr. Gilbertson in The Proposal (2009), Hale’s Head of HR George Dudek reappears in his impossibly cramped office to listen to a host of Air Cruz employees divulge the details of all the ways they have been flagrantly breaking the company’s no fraternizing policy. Naughty!