(A generation ago, this might have been the start of a romantic triangle, but you know: #MeToo, #TimesUp and #NoChance.) Instantly, she gets called in for an interview with a multinational cosmetics firm run by gruff but kindly Treat Williams.

Without Maya’s knowledge, her teenage godson (Dalton Harrod) fakes a fancy Ivy League resume and some amazing social media activity in her name. She has yet to share her big secret with him involving a child she gave up for adoption when she was 17.

Things are good-ish with her steady, goodhearted boyfriend (Milo Ventimiglia). In the opening sequence, she’s passed over for a promotion by a patronizing middle-aged man. En route to that rusty hinge, the screenplay by Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas follows Maya (Lopez), longtime assistant manager of an outer-borough big box store. “Second Act” hinges on a significant reveal around the midpoint, and it’s a lulu in the worst way: preposterously coincidental, outrageously contrived. Here’s the quickie review: Good cast, nearly hopeless script.

The borough’s still got the stuff.Īnd even a weak mashup such as “Second Act,” in which Jennifer Lopez recombines bits of “Working Girl” with pieces of her own 2002 “Maid in Manhattan,” might placate a few moviegoers. Nobody can deny it: New York City and environs have been very good for American popular song lyricists as well as every new generation’s cinematic fairy tales. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

Second act movie true story