SECOND ACT

STARRING: Jennifer Lopez, Vanessa Hudgens, Milo Ventimiglia

For her first onscreen film role in three years, Lopez slips seamlessly back into a genre she used to dominate: the lightweight comedy. In fact, with its false identity premise, Second Act bears more than a passing resemblance to 2002’s Maid in Manhattan, but instead of a hotel employee with ideas above her station, she plays a wholefoods-type grocery store’s assistant manager who is passed over for promotion, only to trick her way into a fancy new job under false credentials. Can she prove her lack of tertiary education doesn’t prevent her from excelling? If that were the extent of the plot, Second Act would be a fun but predictable journey towards the inevitable comeuppance for the doubters, but a whole other storyline unfolds that makes the exercise even more preposterous. If you can suspend your disbelief, this is harmless frivolity; if you can’t, admire Lopez and Hudgens’ array of stunning outfits instead. (Out now)

“I think people forgot about romantic comedies for a while,” Lopez (far left, with Hudgens) says. “Those are the kinds of movies I always love.”