Writers Brett Goldstein and Joe Kelly may not have known how they wanted Office Romance to end when they started spitballing the new rom-com during a train ride from Manchester to London, but they were certain about one thing: “We started talking about how much we loved old-school rom-coms,” says Goldstein. “We were like, ‘Who’s your dream person to make a rom-com with?’ Without hesitation, we were both like, ‘J.Lo.’”
Office Romance, directed by Ol Parker (Ticket to Paradise, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), hearkens to the genre’s classics, but with its own raunchy twist. Lopez stars as Jackie Cruz, the CEO of airline company AirCruz. When Daniel (Goldstein), a mysterious British lawyer, is unexpectedly assigned a case that puts him working closely with Jackie, their attraction is immediate. The only thing getting in their way? AirCruz has a strict policy against office relationships.
Lopez may have been Kelly and Goldstein’s Platonic ideal for a rom-com heroine, but her performance is anything but traditional or expected. “Office Romance is the first time I’m the boss. I’m not playing someone with all these aspirations, who’s the maid or the wedding planner working for the rich people,” says Lopez. “It’s usually the woman who is hoping to be saved in romantic comedies. Jackie’s not really looking for love. ”
But Jackie still finds a one-way ticket to love anyway. Office Romance ends with a swoony kiss between Jackie and Daniel — and, if you stick around for the post-credits scene, a surprise engagement. “It’s the thing that you look to romantic comedies for: Hope,” Lopez says. “That’s why we love this genre — because there’s happily ever after.”
So how do Jackie and Daniel get together? And, what’s going on in the love lives of their unexpectedly raunchy colleagues? Keep reading to unpack the end of Office Romance with Lopez, Goldstein, and Parker.
At the beginning of the film, Daniel and Jackie’s paths haven’t crossed much at work. That is, until Jackie’s legal counsel, Peter Vance (Bradley Whitford), chokes on a breakfast burrito, and Daniel is tasked with taking over an important lawsuit against AirCruz from its rival, Falcon Airlines.
When Daniel first meets Jackie, he’s so intimidated that he stumbles his way through a compliment about her shoes. Just as Jackie starts to trust Daniel, something truly unexpected happens: he gets visibly aroused while they’re shaking hands. “Joe Kelly and I [thought], ‘What is the worst thing that could happen in this moment?’” says Goldstein. “He’s so buttoned up and repressed. Everything’s been held down.”
Daniel rushes from the scene and plans to stew in shame indefinitely. Yet, the incident does anything but push Jackie away. She calls Daniel into her office to ask whether he’ll take over the day-to-day operations of the legal department in Peter’s absence. With her feet propped flirtatiously on the desk, she offers him the new role — that is, if he’s “up for it.” Daniel grimaces and volleys back, “That shouldn’t be too hard.”
It was this kind of irreverent humor that attracted Lopez to the project in the first place: “Office Romance is a very classic romantic comedy, but with these unexpected jokes. Office Romance is a little different from the other romantic comedies that I made, which are very sweet and wholesome,” she says.
Goldstein credits Parker for shaping these raunchier bits. “Ol really nailed the balance of comedy and romance,” says Goldstein. “He made the movie feel old-school, which is exactly what I wanted Office Romance to be. In the wrong hands, certain scenes could tip the film.”
Well, for one, AirCruz has a staunch policy against office relationships. “The board is always looking to find an excuse to get rid of her because she’s the daughter of the founder, even though she’s doing a great job and has been very profitable,” says Lopez. “She’s under a different type of scrutiny because she’s a woman and a nepo baby.”
Jackie’s undeniable attraction to Daniel definitely doesn’t help the Falcon Airlines lawsuit against AirCruz. The suit falsely alleges that Jackie obtained new gates at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport through an improper business relationship. After years of putting the business miles before her personal life, there’s one shred of evidence to the contrary — and so many naysayers ready to pounce.
“She was always the smartest person in the room,” Goldstein says. “But she has pressure from her dad and the men on the board who see her as less than — even though she isn’t.”
To make things even more complicated, Daniel can’t risk getting fired and losing his work visa, because his older sister Lizzy (Jodie Whittaker) is incarcerated in the U.S. (more on that later), and he wants to remain near her.
They try to fight their connection, but their chemistry is impossible to ignore. A drink while on a work trip in the Dominican Republic turns into a dance, which turns into a kiss, and then a steamy night confined to their hotel room.
Upon returning to New Jersey, Jackie and Daniel continue seeing each other — sometimes off the clock and sometimes in the elevator of AirCruz. Or the offices of AirCruz. Or fresh off a trip on the AirCruz jet. “We always thought of Office Romance as a love letter to workaholics. There’s an accusation that can be made against workaholics, which is that working is a way of avoiding real life,” says Goldstein. “One of them is openly lonely. The other one is secretly lonely. What they see in each other is a kindred spirit, and they connect over that.”
When the real life they’ve been avoiding catches up to them, their relationship gets even more complicated.
After Daniel evades questions about where he’s sneaking off to one morning, Jackie follows him to the prison where his sister is being incarcerated. As Lizzy, the sister, proudly explains to Jackie, she “chopped a guy’s head off with a machete” and is now serving time (she regrets nothing). Lizzy then explains everything Daniel has done to support her, and why he took the AirCruz job.
When Daniel catches Jackie in the parking lot, he’s upset that she’s followed him, but she feels just as betrayed that he lied by omission. When Jackie later misspeaks at a massive press conference, they decide their relationship has run its course, and they have to call things off. “They have to break up, because it could really jeopardize her company,” says Goldstein. “It’s almost like a game of chicken. Both of them are going, ‘This isn’t worth it, right?’ But both of them are also kind of saying, ‘Please tell me it’s worth it.’”
It may be Jackie and Daniel’s lowest point in the movie, but it was one of Lopez’s favorite scenes to shoot. “It’s that classic thing: how we can’t take the leap and just do what’s right for ourselves and for love,” she says. “We always choose the other thing when love is the only thing that matters. It’s just heartbreaking to watch.”
It comes as no surprise that Jackie’s workaholic second-in-command, Sydney (Betty Gilpin), ends up having her baby at AirCruz headquarters. After all, she’d always planned to come back to work the day after delivery. When Sydney senses suspicious vibes between Daniel and Jackie in a meeting, she corners him in a conference room with a protective tirade about how he better not jeopardize Jackie’s professional standing. But Sydney is cut off when her water breaks unexpectedly. Daniel scrambles to call 911, but it’s too late: The baby is on its way.
Jackie happens upon the impromptu delivery room just in time, and the two of them team up to help deliver Sydney’s baby. Ever the bullshit detector, Sydney refuses to push until Jackie and Daniel admit to having slept together. Once Jackie concedes, Sydney delivers a beautiful baby girl in one of the more memorably up-close-and-personal scenes of Office Romance.
As promised, Sydney staggers into the office the next day, threatening to invoke Daniel’s legal support if Jackie tries to send her home — which is all the more complicated by Jackie’s admission of a relationship the day before.
Falcon Airlines’ case rests upon the argument that Jackie can’t distinguish between her professional and personal lives, which makes Daniel a less-than-ideal person to defend her case. In fact, it almost results in her corporate downfall: Falcon Air’s head honcho, William Butten (Roger Bart), reveals that he’s had Jackie trailed by private detective Julie Shatz (Amy Sedaris) for months. Julie has snapped damning pics of Jackie and Daniel’s covert relationship, even posing as a hotel employee during their romantic stay in the Dominican Republic. Julie is the person who delivered room service to the burgeoning couple earlier in the film.
Even though Bill knows the Falcon Airlines case holds no water, these pictures put Jackie in an impossible position: Either she gets fired for sleeping with an employee, or she releases the Dallas gates and gets fired for doing a bad job. Jackie decides to resign, putting the company above all else.
When Sydney learns that Jackie plans to resign, she immediately calls Daniel to try to convince him to intervene. But Daniel is already on the way — he’s just stuck in the Holland Tunnel.
He finally arrives at the press conference to save the day, but first delivers a scathing rant about the Holland Tunnel. He admits that he and Jackie slept together — much to the horror of head of HR George Zein (Tony Hale) — thereby stripping Bill Butten of his blackmail. Jackie’s figurehead father, Captain Jack (Edward James Olmos), also steps in to laud his daughter, sharing that she is the brains behind AirCruz’s success, and that if she goes, he’ll leave with her in solidarity.
Sydney reminds Jackie that they’re at a press conference, and with a buzzy change-of-heart, Jackie announces that she’s not resigning after all. In fact, AirCruz will move full steam ahead with its expansion in Dallas. While Jackie is more powerful than ever, there’s also a vulnerability to her, as she recognizes she’s had connections with her “family” of employees all along.
“There’s a softening that happens when Daniel comes into her life, and she falls in love for the first time in a long time,” Lopez says. “It’s that classic thing of like two people coming into each other’s lives and the love between them makes them into better people.” She and Daniel seal their partnership with a kiss, ending Office Romance.
Don’t click out so soon! Soon after the credits start to roll, we learn that Jackie and Daniel are far from the only AirCruz employees involved with one another. After HR sends out a memo permitting office relationships as long as they’re declared, almost every single employee stops by George’s office.
Marcus (Malik Elassal) from the mail room is the father of Sydney’s child. Clair (Mary Wiseman) gives way too much information about her budding romance with Heather (Natalie Ortega). Rachel (Michelle Hurd) and Peter Vance slept together at the office Christmas party — and the scream everyone heard came from a surprise source. Caroline (Jackie Sandler) and Gary are together, and Luke (Stephen Park) watches. Maggie (Ali Stroker) and Henry (Donald Elise Watkins) need help navigating how to make their jobs less duplicitous … But they’re also having sex. Oh, and many, many people have shared a meal with Dave (Scott Seiss); everyone involved should set an appointment with their health care professional.
George looks like he’s just about had his fill of hearing intimate details about his coworkers — and then his door opens to reveal a nude man behind his door. George might be a little too busy to receive the line of AirCruz employees snaking through the hallway outside his door. At least everyone has Jackie and Daniel’s destination wedding in London to look forward to — free airfare included!
Watch Office Romance on Netflix now, and read more about the raunchy rom-com on Tudum.
