After the release of 2014’s Annie, in which Cameron Diaz played Miss Hannigan, Diaz took a break from acting. By 2018, when she reunited with her co-stars from The Sweetest Thing for an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she described herself as “retired,” and stayed that way for the next several years — until now. Today sees the release of Back in Action, a straight-to-Netflix feature film that lured Diaz back onto a film set. At an event in October, Diaz explained that she had stepped away from her professional career because she had to “reclaim” her life and that what she was “passionate” about at the time was building her family, but that she agreed to Back in Action to re-team with her Annie co-star: “I couldn’t say no to Jamie.”

I accept that as her official reason, but having watched the movie, I now think she took the part...