Management

Written and directed by Stephen Belber. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn, Fred Ward, and Woody Harilson.

Image Entertainment - 2009

Three Stars of Review! ***

Once there was a shaggy headed goon. One day the goon meets a woman. It's love at first sight. Not so much for her, but the goon is smitten. He then proceeds to do everything short of light himself on fire in the hopes of winning her affection, and they all lived happily ever after. Sound familiar? Welcome to the plot of every romantic comedy that doesn't involve Gerard Butler and/or Time Travel. There's just one thing: it's actually funny.

The goon is Mike, and Mike ekes out a fairly lonely existence working at his parents motel which seems to occupy a space in the middle of nowhere. The girl is Sue. She's pretty, seems to be successful yet regards everything with an emotionally devoid gaze, and just in case you didn't get the whole dead inside corporate chick thing she tops it all off with a touch of bitchy mascara. Mike meets Sue before the opening credits are finished, and thus begins the point A to point B rom-com convention.

At first Sue is simply annoyed with Mike, but slips into things with low key ambivalence. She even has sex with him in the hotel's laundry room. Why? Perhaps because Mike is the dim witted bolt of lighting that Sue needs to shake her self out of the void. That is what the genera demands, but do yourself a favor and pretend that motivation is trivial for 93 minutes.

Eventually Mike must go on a journey to find his love, as if you didn't see that coming, and a foul mouthed Chinese pot head gets thrown into the mix. In fact the whole thing is a lot stranger than its initial impression. Woody Harrelson even shows up as a dog breeding, ex-punk, yogurt tycoon, and love interest to Sue. Is he the wrong man? Like I said everything and the kitchen sink.

In the end the "Management" sort of fizzles out, but the majority of it has the right mix of laughs and boo-hoo drama. So if you're girly is bugging you to watch something a little more on the soft side then give this one a shot. Or if you're like me and happen to be sitting at home alone on a Sunday afternoon eating a cold burrito and licking your wounds then you could definitely do a lot worse. Especially if gratuitous use of the word “butt” makes you giggle. Lord knows it does for me.

Film available to watch instantly for Netflix subscribers.