“Second Act” is a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Leah Remini, Milo Ventimiglia, and Treat Williams. Peter Segal directed this film which was written by Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas.
Jennifer Lopez plays a woman who ends up being a consultant at what appears to be some kind of ad firm after they come across a rather misleading profile is created. She also finds that she does have a talent for the job if not the credentials. A painful decision she made many years before comes to light as a more profound second chance presents itself.
The movie manages to avoid being outright terrible but there is not a whole lot that has not been seen before. I find Lopez to be a competent comedic actress. There are a few emotional moments that she performs well enough. Lopez handles herself well in these kind of films, but it seems a little overly familiar.
There is a chock full of unlikely coincidence that drives the story forward. The performances are just solid enough for me to still find some enjoyment in this film, but it still fell short of keeping me interested consistently.
All of the usual cliché characters are present in the form of the pushy yet well-meaning best friend, the obnoxious yuppies, and the jealous rivals. I was a little impressed that Larry Miller was in the cast as well considering he has had some major health issues in recent years. I remember Miller as a fairly consistent character actor in these kinds of comedies for several years. I am not necessarily a huge fan of his, but I somehow stumbled across the stories of his medical issues. Since I have nothing against him, I was kind of glad that he seems to be back at work in front of the camera. He was fairly amusing several years ago as the typical over-protective dad in “10 Things I Hate About You”.
The movie was fine generally, but it did get close to being obnoxiously cliché several times.
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