Movie Review: Second Act
3.0/5
Maya (Jennifer Lopez) is passed over for a promotion at a supermarket she works at because she doesn’t have a college degree. Trey (Milo Ventimiglia) her boyfriend, who is a baseball coach wants them to start a family but for reasons that aren’t made clear initially, she’s afraid to take that plunge. Her best friend’s college going son soups up her resume with fake degrees and testimonials and she lands a posh job at an upmarket beauty products company. How long can she keep the facade or whether telling the truth serves her purposes better forms the crux of the film...
The film, which is a toned down spin-off of Working Girl (1988) sort of tells you what women want. Sort of, because at the end of it you're not sure whether it's sexual freedom, having their own space, having a career, having a family, having children -- exactly what's on the top of their agenda -- just like in real life in fact. Perhaps that’s what makes the film terribly relatable. America has always been known as a country where you can famously have it all. So perhaps the film is a parable about how difficult having it all can be, especially for women. It does make a very pertinent point. America has also believed in the myth that a woodcutter can become a president. But the film points out that today, having a degree from a prestigious institute is what counts. Having relevant experience in a field hardly matters. It's an actual real life concern and it’s good that the film is pointing it out.
Jennifer Lopez continues to be a hugely popular star. Somehow, she got known for her good looks and dance moves than for her histrionics. Roles which challenged her acting abilities never really came her way. She got plastered with rom-coms and most of them depicted her as this underdog who won in the end despite the circumstances. So it's no surprise that Second Act kind of follows the same template. The surprise is that Lopez lends a certain gravitas to her role here. Her interactions with her onscreen daughter, whom she meets after ages as she had given her up for adoption, are the real deal. The concern with which she looks at her child, the longing she emotes when she loses her again, the sense of wonderment when they are together offers an emotional core to the film. She's helped of course by the perfect timing of Vanessa Hudgens. The High School Musical star plays the daughter and cues in her responses perfectly. The other performances worth mentioning come from Charlyne Yi, who plays an executive assistant with a fear of heights but had a secret kink and Leah Remini, who plays Jennifer's closest friend willing to do anything for her bestie.
Is Second Act the start of the second phase of Jennifer Lopez’s career? Will she take on films with meatier role and more importantly, would filmmakers be interested in giving her challenging roles? Only time will tell...
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