Second Act (2018)

Directed by: Peter Segal | 104 minutes | romance, comedy | Actors: Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Leah Remini, Treat Williams, Milo Ventimiglia, Annaleigh Ashford, Charlyne Yi, Alan Aisenberg, Freddie Stroma, Dave Foley, Larry Miller, Dierdre Friel, Lacretta, Dan Bucatinsky, Dalton Harrod

Living in a world where practical experience is equivalent to diplomas… that’s what Maya (Jennifer Lopez) wishes for her birthday, just after she saw a big promotion earlier that day. Maya has been working for a local supermarket in New York for fifteen years and partly because of her ideas, this branch is many times more profitable than the competition. But because she has no diploma in her pocket, the position of branch manager, which she undoubtedly could handle with ease, will go to a younger man, who does have the necessary papers.

When Maya complains about this to her best friend Joan (Leah Remini), Dill’s son, Dill, learns about his “aunty” desired career path, and – whiz kid as he is – decides to give Maya’s professional life a boost (read: he gives her an entirely new online identity). As a result, Maya is invited for an interview at Franklin & Clarke, for a top position as a sales consultant. She is hired in no time – although it only clicks with one of her interlocutors – boss Anderson Clarke (Treat Williams). The other, Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens) isn’t impressed with Maya’s ideas, but that could also be because Maya’s criticism is focused on her product line…

Of course, Maya gets hired—not after she gets mad at Dill’s initiative to make her resume much more interesting than it actually is. And so her juggling begins to keep her two worlds separate and, more importantly, to use her expected qualities for the cosmetics multinational.

‘Second Act’ is by no means unique. Lying about your education and work experience has often been the subject of comedy and in that sense this film by Peter Segal does not stand out. The second (about a forced choice Maya had to make at a young age) and third (her relationship with sports coach Trey) storyline are not exactly original either. Especially the second one feels unnatural and artificial and also takes up a large part of the playing time. Despite that predictability, ‘Second Act’ is still quite noticeable. The friendship between Lopez and Remini is convincing, not surprising, because in real life the two actresses are also close friends. The film is tightly produced, has a nice pace and shows beautiful pictures of New York. Jennifer Lopez is simply doing what she does best here and there is still a market for it. The film tells that consumers have difficulty choosing due to the excess of cosmetic products and would like manufacturers to make their choice easier. That’s exactly what the makers of ‘Second Act’ have done: fans of typical Jennifer Lopez movies get exactly what they expect. You don’t have to get stressed about that.