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Management (2008)

Director: Stephen Belber

Time Out rating

Average user rating

2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

It’d be easy to dismiss ‘Management’ as yet another goofy indie comedy about a maladjusted loner pursuing the reticent but eventually lovestruck girl of his dreams. Mike (Steve Zahn) is adrift in his parents’ Arizona motel until he meets Jennifer Aniston’s frosty saleswoman, Sue, and falls, unwisely, in love. Their courtship is awkward, then unwanted, then simply bizarre, taking in Buddhist monasteries, parachute jumps over Kurt Cobain’s hometown and Woody Harrelson as a violent ex-punk yoghurt magnate who trains pitbulls.

As this brief synopsis indicates, there’s a fair amount that annoys here, not least a scrappy, undisciplined plot and the kind of self-involved characters to whom it takes a while to warm. But there’s more to Stephen Belber’s debut than just manufactured whimsy, not least a wise and witty script, and some beautifully sketched side characters supporting two reliably charming leads. Not one for hardened cynics, perhaps, but a guilty pleasure for the rest of us.

Author: Tom Huddleston

Time Out London Issue 2040: 24-30 September, 2009

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User reviews of this film

breezy said...

Posted on Nov 15 2011 00:45 Not bad, so many cliches it could almost be a send up of the genre - the no nonsense business woman has her heart softened by the unwitting insightful fool - you want to hate it but it's actually quite nice.

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Gwen DeFortuna said...

Posted on Dec 01 2009 07:46 The Time Out London review just about pegs it. Guilty pleasure, uneven, with annoying aspects, but there's something ineffably loving about it all, despite that stuff.

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