Film Pick of the Week: Office Romance - review by Yvette Huddleston

She plays successful businesswoman Jackie Cruz, the CEO of a commercial airline company AirCruz founded by her father, who still wields some influence as a member of the board. A self-confessed workaholic, Jackie hasn’t been in a romantic relationship for some years and doesn’t seem particularly interested in pursuing one. Then along comes British lawyer Daniel Blancheflower (Brett Goldstein, who also co-wrote the screenplay) who is part of the company’s legal team. He is catapulted into a leading position when his boss (a nice cameo from Bradley Whitford) chokes on a breakfast burrito and Daniel is required to accompany Jackie to an important deposition. He performs well, exposing the accusation levelled at her as sexist nonsense and Jackie is impressed.

Blancheflower has relocated from the UK to New Jersey for complicated family reasons involving his sister Lizzy (Jodie Whittaker), which he is tight-lipped about but which Jackie eventually discovers for herself. This secondary storyline, which has a pretty dark undertone, doesn’t quite feel like a good fit for a romcom but the scriptwriters just about pull it off – and Whittaker, as always, is on good form.

There is an obvious unacknowledged mutual attraction between Cruz and Blancheflower and when they go on a business trip to Dominican Republic together their professional relationship inevitably becomes a romantic one. However, since the company has very strict rules about workplace romances, when they return to the office, they have to maintain a pretence that they are merely colleagues. Needless to say many complications, comic and otherwise, arise. Jackie’s PA and right-hand-woman Sydney Bloom (Betty Gilpin, excellent) as eagle-eyed, as she is sharp-tongued, pretty quickly figures out what is going on and warns her boss about the consequences. But love prevails…

Much of the humour relies on cultural misunderstandings – Blancheflower’s uptight Britishness is contrasted with his colleagues’ American candour, which is not terribly original, but raises a few laughs. The tone is a little uneven at times and some of the innuendo is reminiscent of old Carry On films, with jokes that don’t quite land but Lopez’s star power, charm and charisma compensates for any shortcomings and there is enough chemistry between her and Goldstein and some nice characterisations from a solid supporting cast to make this eminently watchable.