A big box store worker reinvents her life and her life-story and shows Madison Avenue what street smarts can do.

Plot Synopsis:
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Maya Vargas (Jennifer Lopez) is about to turn age 40. She lives in Queens, New York and is an assistant manager at a value grocery store where she's worked for the last 15 years and implemented successful ideas, like the "Monday Momz" program. Her boyfriend Trey (Milo Ventimiglia) and best friend Joan (Leah Remini) are sure she's finally going to get the manager position, so she's incredibly disappointed when she arrives and finds that an outside manager, Arthur (Dan Bucatinsky) has been hired instead. Because Maya never went to college, she just can't be considered for the position.

At Maya's surprise 40th birthday party, she's disappointed that her life didn't turn out to be more. She expresses to Joan and her godson, Joan's son Dilly (Dalton Harrod) that her birthday wish would be to have gone to a fancy school and done so many exciting things with her life. Later, at work, Arthur is driving Maya and the other employees crazy when Joan tells Maya she has received an interview for a job at the conglomerate Franklin and Clarke - Dilly, a computer genius who is soon going to Stanford, has set up resumes and interviews for her as a birthday present. Annoyed with Arthur, she takes the interview but is shocked when she gets sent up to the top floor to meet with Anderson Clarke (Treat Williams) himself. He is extremely impressed by her resume - which includes Harvard, Wharton, philanthropy, and the peace corps. Flabbergasted, Maya goes along with it. He's interested in having her consult for them and brings in his daughter Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens). His VP. Zoey is cold to Maya, and when Anderson asks Maya for her real thoughts on some of their product lines, she gives them some real talk about their beauty products, which were not as successful as they wanted - which ruffles Zoe's feathers.

Maya finds out she's been hired for the consulting job, but she at first can't imagine saying yes. Joan tells her she got the interview on a lie but got hired because of herself. When Arthur begins being difficult once again, she triumphantly quits. Trey is concerned about her going in because of the lie, but Maya decides she needs to do it. Trey has wanted a family for a long time, and Maya seems uneasy and unwilling every time he brings it up, but won't say why. Trey says they want different things and breaks up with her.

Maya starts her job, and because of her comments in her interview, the product line getting revamped is the beauty line. Maya thinks they need to make all natural products, but Zoe insists they couldn't make it work and that they have an existing line - launching a new one would be too costly. Zoe wants to make their current line more organic, Maya wants to go all natural, so two competing teams are set up and given ten weeks to come up with a new product and pitch. As part of the job, Maya gets a new wardrobe and a massive new apartment. Joan presses her about the breakup with Trey and says Maya needs to stop punishing herself for giving up the baby she had when she was seventeen.

Since the rowing team was listed on her resume, Anderson asks Maya to be the lead at a company rowing event. Maya completely messes up and causes the boat to crash, but Anderson finds the whole thing funny. Ron (Freddie Stroma), another co-worker, finds it suspicious and begins sniffing out Maya's references. Maya is also asked to speak Mandarin at a dinner with a Chinese distributor - and so Joan's veterinarian friend translates for her in her ear, causing some hi-jinks. After that dinner, Zoe softens a little and offers to send Maya her previous research on all natural products.

Anderson calls Zoe into his office to tell her something important. When Maya goes to her apartment to get the files, she sees a lot of art on the walls - Zoe was in art school before leaving to join the company after her mother died, feeling her father needed her around. However, Zoe was adopted and reveals that she has just found out that Maya is her birth mother. The two are overjoyed to be reunited, and spend a lot of time together, growing very close. Maya was living in foster care and couldn't take care of Zoe, and is so relieved to see her doing so well. She encourages Zoe to return to art school. Anderson reveals that he had gone looking for Zoe's birth mother and found Maya online - which is when he saw her resume and called her in for an interview just to meet her, but he was impressed enough to hire her.

Maya has the idea to make their all-natural product all in one, and her team continues working on it, still having trouble making it work. At the company Christmas party, Zoe's assistant Ariana (Charlyne Yi) and product scientist Chase (Alan Eisenberg) - who have had an ongoing flirtation - finally kiss. Ron, however, implies that he knows Maya is full of it and tells her that her product is going to be a "disaster" - which gives Maya another idea, to use silver gingko tree plants, which survived the disaster of Hiroshima. The product is finally working, and the two sides present their products. That night, at Joan's birthday party, Maya sees Trey again. He knows about Zoe, and tells her she didn't need to keep it from him and that no relationship can be based on a lie.

Anderson tells Maya that her product has been chosen and that she has been selected to present it on a huge televised event. Meanwhile, Ron finally gets confirmation that Maya has faked her resume. Maya is giving her speech as Ron enters, ready to tell Anderson everything, but Maya does it herself in the speech, revealing the truth. She apologizes to Anderson and Zoe, but that without the lie a person like her would have never had the opportunity. She leaves, quitting. Outside, Zoe approaches her, extremely hurt, and wondering if it was all a lie. Maya insists it wasn't. Zoe is angry at her for leaving her again, but Maya says that no relationship can be built on a lie. Zoe angrily tells her she's returning to London for art school.

A year later, Maya has made Monday Momz into a successful business (and app, with Dilly's help). Joan and her other friends from the value store all work with her there now, and she's even still friendly with Anderson. Trey comes to see her and makes her promise to never lie to him again, and they get back together. He asks if her if she wants to start a family, and she says that HE is her family - so of course. Finally, Zoe completes school from London and returns. Maya goes to see her and asks if they can start over. After a moment, Zoe agrees, and the two go on a run together.

When addressing the cast and crew upon completion of principal photography, Pete Segal said that the cast and crew of Second Act was his "favourite family" of everyone he's worked with.
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Julia Roberts was originally attached to the role played by Jennifer Lopez.
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Principal photography was completed on December 15, 2017, with the film coming in on time and under budget.
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When Maya and Ron are dancing at the Christmas party, they end up dancing the tango while having a disgruntled conversation. This nearly mimics the exact same scene from The Wedding Planner, in which Mary and Eddie also dance the tango.
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Filming began in New York on Monday, October 23, 2017.
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Food Bazaar Supermarket in Long Island City, New York, was used for location filming and remained open for three days while filming in October 2017.
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The hard-discount store where Maya works was filmed in a Queens Food Bazaar, a 24-hour shop that was not closed for filming.
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The writers of Second Act asked Pete Segal to tweak the script's comedic aspects.
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Second Act was written by screenwriters Justin Zackham and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas. The idea sprang up in their minds more than six years ago, in the early 2010s.
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Second Act was shot entirely in New York. The filming started on October 20, 2017, and ended on December 15, 2017. Peter Segal wanted to make Manhattan a full-fledged character. Other places the team has invested in include the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, the High Line, the streets of Soho, the South Street Seaport area, Madison Square Park, the Food Bazaar in Queens, the Rockerfeller Center, Villard Mansion at Lotte New York Palace Hotel, Dean & Deluca's, inside a metro train of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the wharf of an air train.
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After privileging the thriller and the thriller, such as The Boy Next Door (2015) or the series Shades of Blue (2016 - 2018), Jennifer Lopez returns to a genre she knows well, comedy.
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Principal photography began on October 23, 2017, at Food Bazaar Supermarket in Queens, New York and has continued in The Bronx and Manhattan, including Michael Jordan's Steakhouse in Grand Central Terminal. Filming wrapped on December 15, 2017.
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Second Act is staged by Peter Segal, who has a dozen feature films made for film, almost all of which are comedies. He is credited with, among other things, several major box-office successes such as Max the Threat (2008), Half-Time in the Dart (2005), Love and Amnesia (2004) and Self Control (2003).
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