Management (2008)Dubbed as a 'touching' comedy, this quirky little piece of cinematic joy sees travelling art-saleswoman Sue (Jennifer Aniston) drop in the Kingman motel to stay. She gets a little more than she bargained for in the shape of Mike (Steve Zahn), the nerdy and needy night-manager of his parent's motel. One look (and touch!) of her behind sees him determined to get the girl.
Awkwardness ensues as Mike tries to impress the lady, turning up at his door with a bottle of cheap wine and the excuse 'all our customers get a bottle of wine', when that fails, he turns up with a bottle of champagne and Sue lets him touch her butt to get him out of his hair. The next day as Sue is leaving, she changes her mind and returns to a rather glum looking Mike in the laundry room where they proceed to have a bit of a lacklustre romp.
Assuming she's seen the last of him, Sue leaves. But a holiday romance is the last thing on Mike's mind as he makes the first of three journeys cross country to see Sue. Mike lands in Baltimore and surprises Sue at work who kindly allows him to stay. We begin to see more of Sue, she likes women's indoor football (I know, I'm rolling my eyes too), and handing out vouchers for Burger King food to the local homeless people. After a little while Mike gets on a bus and leaves Sue once more, I should add here that kudos to Steve Zahn, he can do the hang dog look like no one else I know. Sad as it may be, I just wanted to give him a massive hug. While in Baltimore, Sue tells Mike he should quit smoking, so he turns and throws his cigarette away quite dramatically, and says 'I just did'.
Back at home, he returns to the grind of the night shift and who should turn up unnexpectedly, on his fag break? Yep. She says 'I thought you quit smoking?' Mike drop kicks his ciggy (seriously, it was possibly the funniest part of the film!) and says 'I just did.' He asks Sue to join him at a yoga class, and then to visit his mother with him as she is sick. A strange but compelling conversation between strangers Sue and Trish (Margo Martindale) who tells Mike later to go out and find what makes him happy.
Shortly after Sue's latest departure, Trish sadly passes away, we never learn what's wrong with her, but there's a touching father/son scene as they scatter her ashes. Jerry (Fred Ward) tells his son that he's free to leave, and Mike is off again, not before pawning his mother's necklace that his father had passed on, so he could afford to once more head cross country after his love.
It's around this time that Mike picks up his Asian buddy and wingman Al (James Hiroyuki Liao), who's probably the funniest character in the film. With his help Mike gets a job and a place to stay while he looks for Sue. It turns out that she got back with her ex, Jango (Woody Harrleson), so what does Mike do? Yeah, you got it! He parachutes into their swimming pool, gets shot byt Jango with a BB gun and ends up in hospital only to get spurned once more by the leather-hearted Sue.
But then it's clear that as a glutton for punishment, he isn't going to give up easily. Not even after getting head-butted by Jango, who has a dog-wielding meat-cake air-headed side-kick in tow. Even after a beautiful serenade by Mike and Al (on percussion), Sue is still having none of it and visits Mike in his basement at the Chinese restaurant to tell him she's marrying Jango and is with child, and no it isn't Mikes. 'I want someone who's in control of their life' Sue tells him, in anger Mike screams at her to leave.
Standing in the sidelines, Mike and Al watch Sue marry Jango on the beach. As as joke, Al says 'makes you want to become a Buddhist monk.' Which unsurprisingly, Mike takes seriously. Four months later he returns to the motel and his father who hands him the deeds. He decides to turn the motel into homeless shelter with midnight basketball, something Sue had mentioned always wanting to do. He calls Jango to try and speak with Sue, but he is informed that they are no longer together and that Sue is living with her mother.
For the third, and final time Mike travels across the country, and finally he gets his happy ending, but we all knew that was coming, didn't we?
All in all, it wasn't spectacular, but I enjoyed the film because of Steve Zahn's performance, he was a very convincing and loveable stalker who has the best puppy-eyes anyone could have. It's a 'nice' film, that's easy to watch and makes you smile at the end.
7/10
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