CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
(director/writer: Elise Duran; screenwriters: Peter Hutchins/from the novel by Sophie Kinsella; cinematographer: Autumn Eakin; editor: Nathaniel Krause/Jason Nicholson; music: Jeff Cardoni; cast: Alexandra Daddario (Emma Corrigan), Tyler Hoechlin (Jack Harper), Sunita Mani (Lissy), Laverne Cox (Cybill), Robert King (Casey), Kimiko Glenn (Gemma), David Ebert (Connor), Kate Easton (Artemis Harrington), Bobby Tisdale (Doug); Runtime: 94; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Claude Dal Farra, Brice Dal Farra, Brian Keady; Vertical Entertainment; 2019)
“I’ve seen much worse rom/coms.“
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A sweet but dull sitcom-like comedy helmed by TV director Elise Duran (“Being Chaz”) that lacks any laughs and seems dated. It’s based on the best-seller novel by Britisher Sophie Kinsella, and is written by Peter Hutchins with the intention of getting all the familiar TV sitcom tropes into it as he can and to make it a predictable office romance between boss and employee.
Alexandra Daddario plays Emma Corrigan, a young single marketing exec in NYC for an organic health food/drink company, who can’t find a man to love and is worried about losing her job. Flying back to NYC from an unsuccessful business trip to Chicago, her plane experiences turbulence and while tipsy on her complimentary drink, she fears the plane will crash and spills her guts out to the stranger sitting next to her–telling him such secrets as pulling payback tricks on co-workers she doesn’t like, the likes and dislikes she has for all her fellow office workers, never being in love and not sure if she has a G-spot. The plane recovers and lands safely. The next day at the office the hunky stranger from the plane shows up, Jack Harper (Tyler Hoechlin), and he’s identified as the CEO of her company who is doing an office check.
Emma is bubbly as the amiable klutz, while Jack is quietly manly as the nice guy boss who falls for Emma and follows through on her death bed confessions to restructure the firm with her suggestions.
It’s about as interesting and humorless as working at a job you could care less about or romantically digging someone even if there’s no chemistry in the relationship. It’s one of those films that’s not bad, as much as it’s not good.
REVIEWED ON 4/10/2020 GRADE: C+