''Management'' is a 2008 American romantic comedy-drama directed by Stephen Belber and starring

Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress and film producer. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Since her career ...

and

Steve Zahn Steven James Zahn (; born November 13, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. His film roles include ''Reality Bites'' (1994), ''That Thing You Do!'' (1996), ''Stuart Little'' (1999), '' Shattered Glass'' (2003), ''Sahara'' (2005), '' Chicken Li ...

. It premiered at the

2008 Toronto International Film Festival 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

and received a limited theatrical release on May 15, 2009.

Plot

Mike Flux (

) works at his parents' motel as the night manager. One day he sees Sue (

), who is staying at the motel for the weekend. He develops a crush on her and surprises her at her door with a bottle of wine. She doesn't quite know what to make of his approach, shares some wine to be polite, then asks him to leave. He returns the next day, trying the same trick with champagne, and this time she allows him to touch her butt momentarily. As she heads back home the next day she decides to go back and have sex with Mike in the laundry room. Mike realizes his feelings for Sue and flies to her home in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. She's shocked to see him there, but out of courtesy allows him to stay with her until morning when he can go back home. After spending some time together they get to know each other better as friends, and soon after Mike returns home, Sue stays at the motel again. They decide to go out and have fun. Mike's mother (

Margo Martindale Margo Martindale (born July 18, 1951) is an American character actress who has appeared on television, film, and stage. In 2011, she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Critics' Choice Television Award for her recurring role as Mags Bennett on '' ...

) is very sick, and the two stop by her home to see her. She approves of Sue, and tells Mike that he needs to find happiness in his life. Soon after Sue leaves, Mike's mother passes away. Mike decides to make a change in his life and go after Sue once again. Mike learns that Sue has gotten back together with her old boyfriend, Jango (

Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...

), a former punk rocker turned successful businessman in Aberdeen, WA. Mike settles into the new town by taking a job at a Chinese restaurant. The son of the owners, Al (

James Hiroyuki Liao James Hiroyuki Liao (born February 6, 1976) is an American actor. Liao is known for his television roles as Roland Glenn in the Fox serial drama ''Prison Break'' (2008); Jay Lee in the CBS, and later A&E, police procedural series ''Unforgettabl ...

), befriends him and allows Mike to stay in the restaurant's basement. Mike skydives into Sue and Jango's pool to surprise her, but Jango responds by attacking him with an

airsoft gun Airsoft guns are replica toy guns used in airsoft sports. They are a special type of low-power smoothbore air guns designed to shoot non-metallic spherical projectiles (pb) often colloquially (but incorrectly) referred to as " BBs", which are ...

. Feeling bad about what he did, Jango invites Mike and Al over for dinner. Jango knows Mike has feelings towards Sue and threatens him. Regardless of the threat, Mike, with help from Al, sings a song for Sue outside her window later that night. Sue meets up with Mike the next day, informing him, that she and Jango are getting married. Sue is pregnant, and she wants to be with someone that's in control of his life. In anger after everything he worked for to be with her, Mike tells Sue to leave. After spending four months in a

Buddhist monastery Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

, Mike returns to the motel, now being run solely by his father (

Fred Ward Freddie Joe Ward (December 30, 1942 – May 8, 2022) was an American actor and producer. Starting with a role in an Italian television movie in 1973, he appeared in such diverse films as '' Escape from Alcatraz'', ''Southern Comfort'', '' The R ...

). After talking about moving on with their lives, Mike's father hands him the deed to the motel. Mike decides to turn the motel into a homeless shelter, something Sue had mentioned always wanting to do. Mike calls her at home to tell her, but Jango answers the phone. He reveals that Sue has left him and is living with her mother. Mike makes his way to Sue's home to ask her for help with the shelter. She's happy to see him and tells him that she had messed up their relationship. Mike tells her he loves her and only wants to take care of her and her baby. The story ends as they embrace.

Cast

Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn Faces Red Carpet for Premiere of Management

as Sue Claussen *

as Mike Flux *

as Jango *

as Jerry Flux *

as Trish Flux *

as Al *

Josh Lucas Joshua Lucas Easy Dent Maurer (born June 20, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in various films, including '' American Psycho'' (2000), '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), '' The Deep End'' (2001), '' A Beautiful Mind'' (2 ...

as Barry

Filming

While set in Kingman, Arizona,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, filming took place entirely in

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

in 2007. Sonny’s Motel in Madras served as the Kingman Motor Inn, while

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

stepped in for Baltimore. Instead of Aberdeen, Washington, both Oregon City and West Linn were used to represent the hometown of Kurt Cobain. Even the footage showing Zahn's character driving cross-country from Arizona to Maryland was all shot in Oregon. The restaurant scenes were filmed at the Aloha Mall in Aloha, Oregon off TV highway.

Reception

''Management'' received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film has an approval rating of 47% based on reviews from 96 critics. The website's critical consensus concludes: "Clever and often beguiling performances by Steve Zahn and Jennifer Aniston can't revive this sweetly misguided stalker romance." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

it has a score of 50/100 base on reviews from 26 critics.

Home media

The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

was released on September 29, 2009. It has grossed $3,820,537 in US DVD sales.Management - Box Office Data, Movie News, Cast Information
''The Numbers''. Retrieved 2010-11-24.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Management (Film) 2008 films 2008 romantic comedy-drama films American romantic comedy-drama films Films produced by Jennifer Aniston Films set in Baltimore Films set in Washington (state) Films shot in Portland, Oregon Films shot in Washington (state) Temple Hill Entertainment films Sidney Kimmel Entertainment films Echo Films films Films set in Arizona Films scored by Mychael Danna Films scored by Rob Simonsen Films produced by Wyck Godfrey 2000s English-language films 2000s American films