Management

I really wanted to like Management especially since I was in the mood for a romcom. So the letdown of actually seeing it was even more stupendous. Here is a film that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and when it played recently in New York  my friends were calling saying "What, there is a film here you haven't heard of?" So when I got the chance to see it, in advance of its engagement at the Angelika starting July 17, I thought I was in for a good sit.

Jennifer Aniston can be amazing when she's in a decent film (Marley & Me, The Good Girl) and Steve Zahn has good comic timing. That's the before. Afterwards I felt hoodwinked.

A dorky guy (Zahn) hits on a traveling saleswoman (Aniston) at his parents motel in Gooberville USA. She lets him touch her butt after a few drinks. Later our meek hero moves to her big city and stalks her, but in a friendly way. Natch she's kind of attracted to him in a stray dog kind of manner while her fiancee (a way way over the top Woody Harrelson) doesn't help matters since he's kind of creepy, although conveniently rich.

Fred Ward and Margo Martindale stand by as parental scenery and the whole thing reeks of a contractual theatrical release when it should've been straight to DVD. Didn't care for The Proposal much either but at least that romcom was releasable. Management just escaped.