One of the perennial favorite film plots is that of the underdog, or as aptly put, "everybody loves the underdog". We've seen it in many genres: "Rocky", "Working Girl", "Maid in Manhattan", "Legally Blonde", even the animated "Cinderella", and they get the audience on their feet to cheer. So, with all this popularity, Hollywood had to offer us yet another one in the form of "Second Act".
This is a comedy in the vein of "Working Girl" and :Maid in Manhattan". Jennifer Lopez stars as Maya, a 40-year-old woman struggling with frustrations from unfulfilled dreams. Until, that is, she gets the chance to prove to Madison Avenue that street smarts are as valuable as book smarts, and that is never too late for a Second Act.
Through her people, Joan (Leah Remini), Big Ant (Dierdre Friel) and Suzi (Lacretta), she decided to apply at a prestigious firm to test the waters. After Anderson Clarke (Treat Williams) gave her the job as a consultant, Maya, being shocked she even got the job, preceded to go into the position head first and working with Clarke's daughter, Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens), she was beginning to prove herself until things started to get out of hand. Can she cut it or will she be able to prove herself before all realizes that she doesn't have all the credentials she claims she has?
Others to round out the cast are Milo Ventimiglia as Trey, Maya's boyfriend, Annaleigh Ashford as Hildy Ostrander, Charlyne Yi as Ariana, Alan Aisenberg as Chase, Freddie Stroma as Ron Ebsen, Dave Foley as Felix Herman and Larry Miller as Weiskopf.
This was wittingly directed by Peter Segal ("The Road Warriors" (TV movie) '92, "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult" '94, "Tommy Boy" '95, "My Fellow Americans" '96, :Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" 2000, "Anger Management" '03, "50 First Dates" '04, "The Longest Yard" '05, "Get Smart" '08, "Grudge Match" '13) plus others, TV and shorts. This filmmaker is the quintessential comedy director that knows and does what he knows and does best. He even gravitates to the same caliber of projects--safe, predictable and fun. While I would like to see any filmmaker think outside of the box, I certainly can understand why one would hover on that safe limb. His direction isn't cutting edge, however he is an accomplished director--look at his resume. So it is no surprise to see that he has yet another film in post-production for a 2019 release titled "My Spy".It was adequately written by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Justin Zackham ("Going Greek" '01, "The Fastest Man in the World" (Documentary) '03, "The Bucket List" '07, "The Big Wedding" '13, "One Chance" '13) plus TV and a short. Interesting that Zackham received second billing on the writing credit with Goldsmith-Thomas having no feature film experience. Not sure what that's about unless he was attempting to giving the other writer a chance. However the writing was palatable and showed its audience that journey one must go through to get that second chance, it simply suffered a little from a lack of cohesiveness and it was a bit choppy. Mind you, these are only structural issues, whereas the idea and the follow through with it was admirable and the audience could definitely feel the pain that Maya went through on several levels. Maybe there were too many levels Maya was having to deal with. Not sure, but it is still a film with heart done in an entertaining way.
This was certainly better than the trailer which didn't really sell it to me, but after viewing it, I felt it was worthy of others viewing it. The ensemble cast was endearing and had their funny moments, the script just needed more polish structurally. This was definitely one of Lopez's better efforts along with "Monster-In-Law".
Out of 4 Stars: 2.5 Rated: PG-13 103mins.
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