Office Romance

Anyone who’s worked in human resources might cringe more than the rest of us at Office Romance, although its most serious violations are in the script department.

The latest romantic-comedy vehicle for the always charming Jennifer Lopez dodges a self-imposed hurdle by asking moviegoers to care about the love lives of two privileged executives in the airline industry.

However, with a titular relationship that’s utterly predictable and progressively reliant on far-fetched twists, this trifle from director Ol Parker (Ticket to Paradise) rarely takes flight.

Lopez stars as Jackie Cruz, the unmarried CEO of her family’s namesake airline, having inherited the leadership role from her beloved father (Edward James Olmos), who remains an influential voice on the board.

A lawsuit from a rival airline accuses Jackie of impropriety in a business deal, just as her top lawyer (Bradley Whitford) suffers a medical emergency. In steps Daniel (Brett Goldstein), a new in-house attorney with perpetual facial stubble and an alluring British accent.

Jackie and Daniel keep things strictly professional at first, in accordance with the firm’s strict policy. The workaholics eventually connect after letting their guard down and exposing some personal and professional vulnerabilities. He’s got potentially damaging family secrets and she’s trying to shed her industry image as a nepo baby.

Sparks fly when Jackie flies Daniel to the Caribbean on her private plane for a business trip that conveniently evolves into an intimate tropical getaway. The courtship encounters some turbulence back home thanks in part to Jackie’s outspoken and very pregnant assistant (Betty Gilpin), who sees right through the sexual tension.

The screenplay by “Ted Lasso” collaborators Goldstein and Joe Kelly generates some scattered big laughs with clever one-liners and amusing observations about contemporary workplace social norms. It mixes shady corporate ethics with raunchy double entendres while tweaking cultural misunderstandings and political correctness.

But while the performances convey a breezy chemistry, the clunky dialogue makes the interactions between Jackie and Daniel feel more calculated and contrived than emotionally genuine.

We’re left with an obligatory batch of quirky periphery characters, such as the company’s beleaguered HR director (Tony Hale), who provide some comic highlights. Yet as it opts against a meaningful exploration of shifting power dynamics, Office Romance feels as generic as its title.

Rated R, 112 minutes.