Management

We tried hard to let go of reality and accept the odd premise of this film, but the obstacle in our way was Jennifer Aniston. Unfortunately, we all felt like we were watching Rachel from Friends. This is really a shame because if you could look beyond the obvious, Management could have been a touching, different kind of love story.

Steve Zahn plays a borderline convincing role as Mike,  the weird and wacky son of a couple who own and run a motel in Arizona. He has no life to speak of – outside of the day to day management of the motel, no friends, and no future except the inheritance of the family business. He falls for Aniston’s character – traveling Art Saleswoman Sue Claussen, from the back as she checks into the motel on a business trip. The rest of the movie circles around his stalker-like behavior as he tries to convince Sue that he is the one for her.

We thought the story would have been more effective with a lesser known actress with a somewhat off-beat look. No matter how hard she tries, Aniston just can’t break the mold of that Rachel character from Friends. Lucky for the film, Zahn carries it over the finish line with some much needed humor assisted to him by James Liao (hilarious as Mike’s buddy Al).

Even the addition of Woody Harrelson (ex-punk star turned yogurt king Jango) brought unnecessary star power to the film. It almost seems like the more of a stretch the story line is, the more obscure the actors need to be  - otherwise they stand in the way of our ability to escape reality and enjoy a different kind of movie.

We did chuckle. It is a cute story. We just felt like it missed the mark with poor casting.

We rated this movie a 2 out of 5.