The Office Mix-Up (2020)

(On Cable TV, June 2021) It’s one thing to see romantic comedies use idiot-plotting to stretch a thin premise to feature-film length, but it’s another to see one build itself entirely on an idiot-plotting trick. Alas, that’s where director Andrew Lawrence’s The Office Mix-Up goes, using an identity misunderstanding to send its ambitious protagonist inside a marketing agency when she’s mistaken for someone else. Despite her best friend’s warning that this is fraud and cannot possibly end well, the protagonist decides to keep up the lie — at least until an anticipated opportunity to tell the truth a few days later. Of course, complications ensue; the main romantic plot thread emerges and before long no one is able to extricate themselves gracefully from the situation, to which any viewer of average intelligence will roll their eyes in I-told-you-so exasperation. But you can reasonably argue that made-for-TV romantic comedies like The Office Mix-Up (surprisingly enough, not a Lifetime nor Hallmark special, but not a theatrical release either) voluntarily lower their ambitions to make viewers feel better about themselves. Having audiences put together most of the film from the tell-all trailer is not considered a problem when the goal is familiarity and comfort. Even the lifeless direction is unobtrusive in getting the narrative delivered as transparently as possible. The heroine is bland, plays bland, feels bland and that’s by design as to create identification against a mostly bland (uh, blank) canvas. Same goes for the male romantic interest, strictly defined by his inexplicable attraction to the heroine — this being a female-driven film, it’s rather amusing to see objectification going the other way. But even with those lacklustre traits, The Office Mix-Up remains mildly engaging. The failure mode of straight-to-video romcoms is fairly generous, and it’s the kind of film almost meant to be watched as background noise — everything is repeated thrice, there are no real doubts about what’s going to happen next nor where it’s ultimately going. A more serious problem is a lack of flavour in the details of the execution — it’s featureless and few of the supporting characters or details provide much mirth, the closest being a security guard with a specific obsession that comes across as irritating more than amusing. I don’t think it’s possible to hate The Office Mix-Up, but you can either take it as it is, or dismiss it for exactly the same reasons.