Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Film | June 9, 2026
Let’s just get this out of the way first: Office Romance is not a good movie. Then again, I’d offer that 27 Dresses, Made of Honor, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Bride Wars, etc., are not good movies, either. But they’re all watchable and even occasionally amusing, and that, too, is the case for Office Romance. (Rotten Tomatoes folks: If you’re wondering, this is a Rotten Tomato but with an asterisk.)
What is mostly noteworthy is that this is a bad romantic comedy written by two Ted Lasso writers, Joe Kelly and Brett Goldstein, the latter of whom also stars. But we’ve also seen enough of their work — Kelly was also on SNL and How I Met Your Mother, among others, while Goldstein is also a writer on Shrinking — to surmise that the writing may not be great, but it is intentional. They wrote a Netflix romcom with a specific audience in mind: one that wants to watch a low-stakes, lightweight, formulaic romcom with a three-act structure and a big gooey kiss at the end. Nothing more, nothing less.
In other words: They completed the assignment.
What makes it work to the extent that it does is a cast that knows exactly what movie they’re in. Jennifer Lopez has been making these all her life. This is not Hustlers — it’s The Back-Up Plan or Maid in Manhattan — and Netflix made a low-risk bet that their audience would want to see JLo in her natural romantic comedy habitat. Goldstein, meanwhile, brings some of his Roy Kent energy to a buttoned-down lawyer, while Betty Gilpin steals most of the movie in a best-friend role that is, frankly, beneath her.
The setup fits neatly into a one-sentence logline: A CEO and her lawyer fall in love, but their forbidden office romance threatens to derail both of their careers. And it delivers exactly the movie that logline promises — an awkward meet-cute (Daniel gets an erection the first time he shakes hands with Jackie), a lot of trying not to get caught having sex, a breakup precipitated by the fear of ruining their careers, and finally, a big chase to an airport hangar (she’s the CEO of an airline) and a bigger speech.
It hits all the expected beats. Lopez, Goldstein, and Gilpin elevate a mediocre script as best they can, with Gilpin particularly fantastic as the fiercely protective and very pregnant company number two. Jodie Whittaker is likewise funny as Daniel’s sister, who is in jail for cutting off her ex-boyfriend’s head with a machete. The film is R-rated, but not in a gross-out way — mostly a fair amount of profanity and one genuinely intense scene in which Gilpin’s character gives birth in the office.
None of this is original or subversive, and it’s worthy of whatever bad reviews it receives. But every movie I name-checked above was also reviewed poorly, and all of them found an audience. There’s a constituency for a meaningless romcom with decent chemistry between the leads and a smattering of solid jokes, and Office Romance serves that audience competently. Go in with abysmal expectations and it just might surprise you by not being as bad as you thought it would be.
