Second Act

Second Act casts Jennifer Lopez as Maya, a 40-year-old supermarket employee who pads out her resume and successfully lands a high-powered job at a major cosmetics firm – with the film subsequently detailing Maya’s efforts at keeping her secret and impressing her new colleagues. It’s a far-from-innovative premise that’s employed to perpetually affable (if awfully conventional) effect by Peter Segal, as the filmmaker delivers a watchable dramedy that’s heightened by Lopez’s consistently charismatic turn as the likable protagonist – with the movie also benefiting from an ongoing emphasis on amusing set-pieces and sequences. (There is, for example, a familiar yet awfully funny scene in which Maya attempts to act as a Mandarin translator.) It’s clear, then, that Second Act’s sitcom-like atmosphere never becomes quite as problematic as one might’ve feared, although it’s equally apparent that the almost excessively sentimental third act does ensure the whole thing concludes with something of a whimper. Still, Second Act is, for the most part, far more entertaining than it has any right to be, and there’s little doubt that Lopez herself plays a big role in the movie’s mild success.

*** out of ****