SYNOPSIS:
MANAGEMENT is a romantic comedy that chronicles
a chance meeting between Mike Cranshaw (Steve Zahn) and Sue
Claussen (Jennifer Aniston).
When Sue checks into the roadside motel owned
by Mike's parents in Arizona, what starts with a bottle of
wine "compliments of MANAGEMENT" soon evolves into
a multi-layered, cross-country journey of two people looking
for a sense of purpose. Mike, an aimless dreamer, bets it
all on a trip to Sue's workplace in Maryland – only
to find that she has no place for him in her carefully ordered
life.
Buttoned
down and obsessed with making a difference in the world, Sue
goes back to her yogurt mogul ex-boyfriend Jango (Woody Harrelson),
who promises her a chance to head his charity operations.
But, having found something worth fighting for, Mike pits
his hopes against Sue's practicality, and the two embark on
a twisted, bumpy, freeing journey to discover that their place
in the world just might be together.
MOVIE REVIEW:
"Management"
is unlike your typical Jennifer Aniston rom-com- not that
it isn’t romantic or funny, rather its humour is of
a more lowkey and offbeat nature, and by virtue of that, isn’t
set out to be a crowd-pleaser like say "Marley and Me".
Indeed,
the first hint of its unusual humour begins when writer/director
Stephen Belber’s 'touching' comedy begins quite literally
on that footing- on the second night that “Mike (Steve
Zahn) from management” visits traveling art saleswoman
Sue (Jennifer Aniston) at her motel room under the guise of
delivering a complimentary bottle of champagne, he compliments
her 'nice ass', to which she responds, "I’ll let
you touch my ass and then you can go".
And
so he does, even having the good fortune of snogging her in
the hotel’s laundry room just before she departs back
to Maryland. Ah, how one wishes to be as fortunate as 'Mike
from management'. Well, actually not really- thanks to that
unexpected encounter, Mike wakes up to the stagnant life he’s
been leading, where every day is a repetition of the next
working at the motel his parents own. It never hurts to have
a little perspective in life and that’s what Sue turns
out to be.
It is through this lens that Stephen Belber
invites us to see Mike’s predicament and his subsequent
persistence with Sue- someone passing through who happened
to change his life. At its best, Belber’s movie deftly
captures the coming-togethers and going-aways of life- that
the people we meet are very often just passing through our
lives, and without an effort to make them stay a little while
longer, they will just be a gradually fading memory.
Though quite the unlikely pairing- Zahn isn’t
what you would consider Hollywood leading man- Aniston and
Zahn have great chemistry with each other and the scenes they
share together sparkle with warmth. Unfortunately, Belber
throws in an ill-advised subplot halfway into the film, involving
Aniston’s ex-punk rocker of a boyfriend Jango (Woody
Harrelson), which detracts from its earlier geniality.
The
misplaced change in tone weakens somewhat the emotional connection
"Management" spends its first half building up with
its audience. Still, it is a tender, heartfelt and genuinely
delightful first half, and by the time its inevitable happy
ending rolls by, "Management" will still win you
over with its 'touching' romantic and funny moments.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The audio track is presented in Dolby Digital
5.1 and makes full use of its ambient sounds for any surround
effects. Image is clean, and preserves the bright and dim
colours in the film as suits the scenes.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 10 November 2009
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