Jennifer Lopez gives us her version with “Halftime,” debuting today on Netflix following its splashy premiere as the opening night selection of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. While there’s no question that she and her career are worthy of such treatment, it’s unfortunate that the resulting film is not quite worthy of her talents. Instead of leaving viewers with a better or more informed idea of what makes her tick as a person and as an artist, “Halftime” feels more like a ruthlessly efficient election ad for a political campaign that was decided a long time ago.
The film kicks off with her celebrating her 50th birthday in July 2019, and then follows her over what proves to be an exceptional busy and tumultuous six-month period dominated by two major events. The first comes with the Toronto Film Festival premiere of “Hustlers,” the comedy-drama that she co-produced and co-starred in as the leader of a group of strippers who join together to bilk their sleazy Wall Street clients out of their money. Having spent a number of years wasting her undeniable gifts as an actress on a series of star vehicles that were mediocre at best, the fact that she was appearing in a showy supporting role in a project that had more ambition than “The Back-Up Plan” or “The Boy Next Door” attracted a lot of attention, and led many to speculate that she was an almost certain bet for an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Although many actors will pooh-pooh (at least publicly) the importance of awards, Lopez is clearly interested in the validation that such a thing will confer upon her career and embarks upon a grueling campaign to land that nomination.
Just as she is begins that pursuit, another major offer comes her way—an invitation to perform before the biggest audience of her entire career during the halftime show at Super Bowl LIV in Miami. As it turns out, there is one last-minute hitch to the deal when she learns that instead of filling the roughly 12-minute-log performance slot on her own, she will be sharing it with a second Latina superstar, namely Shakira. Although she’s outwardly content with this decision (at least at first), the reality is that by splitting the time, she now has to figure out how to tell her musical story while giving the fans at least a taste of the hits that they want to hear. She must accomplish it all in a time slot that cannot be extended. As daunting as this may be, Lopez is up for the challenge, perhaps knowing in the back of her mind that if everything comes together the way she hopes, she will have pulled off the singular show-biz achievement of performing for hundreds of millions of viewers one February weekend and winning an Oscar a week later.