Halftime movie review & film summary (2022)
Jennifer Lopez offers us her model with “Halftime,” debuting at present on Netflix following its splashy premiere because the opening night time collection of this yr’s Tribeca Movie Competition. Whereas there is no query that she and her profession are worthy of such therapy, it is unlucky that the ensuing movie just isn’t fairly worthy of her abilities. As an alternative of leaving viewers with a greater or extra knowledgeable concept of what makes her tick as an individual and as an artist, “Halftime” feels extra like a ruthlessly environment friendly election advert for a political marketing campaign that was determined a very long time in the past.
The movie kicks off together with her celebrating her fiftieth birthday in July 2019, after which follows her over what proves to be an distinctive busy and tumultuous six-month interval dominated by two main occasions. The primary comes with the Toronto Movie Competition premiere of “Hustlers,” the comedy-drama that she co-produced and co-starred in because the chief of a gaggle of strippers who be part of collectively to bilk their sleazy Wall Avenue shoppers out of their cash. Having spent numerous years losing her simple items as an actress on a sequence of star automobiles that had been mediocre at finest, the truth that she was showing in a showy supporting function in a challenge that had extra ambition than “The Again-Up Plan” or “The Boy Subsequent Door” attracted numerous consideration, and led many to take a position that she was an nearly sure wager for an Oscar nomination for Finest Supporting Actress. Though many actors will pooh-pooh (no less than publicly) the significance of awards, Lopez is clearly within the validation that such a factor will confer upon her profession and embarks upon a grueling marketing campaign to land that nomination.
Simply as she is begins that pursuit, one other main provide comes her approach—an invite to carry out earlier than the largest viewers of her complete profession in the course of the halftime present at Tremendous Bowl LIV in Miami. Because it seems, there’s one last-minute hitch to the deal when she learns that as a substitute of filling the roughly 12-minute-log efficiency slot on her personal, she will likely be sharing it with a second Latina famous person, specifically Shakira. Though she’s outwardly content material with this determination (no less than at first), the fact is that by splitting the time, she now has to determine easy methods to inform her musical story whereas giving the followers no less than a style of the hits that they wish to hear. She should accomplish all of it in a time slot that can’t be prolonged. As daunting as this can be, Lopez is up for the problem, maybe figuring out behind her thoughts that if the whole lot comes collectively the best way she hopes, she can have pulled off the singular show-biz achievement of performing for lots of of hundreds of thousands of viewers one February weekend and profitable an Oscar per week later.
