Brett Goldstein romances J-Lo in Netflix’s new Rom-Com.
Brett Goldstein could write the ingredients for a cereal box and I would read it. He’s one of the writers behind the stratospheric shows Ted Lasso and Shrinking, the 2025 release All of You and the magnificent movie podcast Films to be Buried With (a must listen for any self-confessed cinephile). So when his new movie, which he contributes as a writer and stars opposite Jennifer Lopez was released on Netflix earlier this month, I was certainly intrigued.
Office Romance centres around just that. Goldstein plays Daniel Blanchflower (the name being one of a couple of Tottenham Hotspurs easter eggs eagle eyed football fans can find in this film), a lawyer working for AirCruz run by the formidable Jackie, played by Jennifer Lopez. When a case against the airline rests on Jackie’s lack of relationships and the stringent policy banning relationships between employees, it creates problems for Jackie and Danny’s secret office romance.
The plot is, as all rom-coms tend to be, fairly convoluted. X, which would never happen in real life, happens so Y, which would never happen in real life, can happen. But the genre of rom-com is not interested in real life because real life is kind of boring. Real life won’t have you have you feeling fuzzy and grinning at ridiculous declarations of love. So when watching rom-coms you have to put aside sense and just dive in. If you do that, you will enjoy this film. Goldstein and Lopez look good together, and watching them interact will have you grinning without realising. You’re eyes will be rolling as they, like all rom-com characters, commit arduous feats of self-sabotage in order to prove their love or insert other motivation here, but you’ll be grinning too.
The problem with Office Romance however is not the “okay so just go with it” plotting (we’ve already established if you are watching a rom-com you are okay to just “go with it”) but instead how it feels simultaneously over and under developed. There are quick scenes of Daniel grabbing a jacket and watching a football game to show us… that he likes football I guess? Or scenes with Jackie and her Dad that provide a backstory but feel somewhat incongruous with the rest of the film? Ultimately, it feels like the movie takes the form of multiple vignettes that work almost like sketches that have seemingly little bearing on the rest of the plot. Yes they are funny and evoke a chuckle but it just doesn’t feel very cinematic when you can imagine the movie being clipped up to put on social media with the caption “She fancies him because he is British :O ”. And as much as I appreciate Brett Goldstein’s writing and sense of humour, if you have seen any of his stand up before (I’m thinking his 2025 special The Second Best Night Of Your Life) you’ll recognise some jokes and sequences that perhaps worked better as stand up routines. But despite all this, you will laugh, and ultimately, Netflix has decided to be a bit riskier with this film with “Some of this Movie Will Genuinely Shock You” style sequences like a birth scene that will certainly be remembered.
But saying all this, it is a rom-com. It’s romantic. It’s comical. It’s certainly taking bold swings with some of the gags. If you like rom-coms you’ll probably like it. And if you don’t, you won’t.
Subjective – 3
Objective – 2
Tesni Jones – 01/07/26
Cinemacaw: Taking flight through film. 
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