Review: Contrived 'Management' is heavy on quirk

LOS ANGELES -- It's easy to forget that Jennifer Aniston truly can act.

It's easy to get caught up in her sunny looks, in the tabloid frenzy of her off-screen persona, and lose sight of the fact that, when given the opportunity in small, meaty films like "The Good Girl" and "Friends With Money" and even the cult comedy "Office Space," she can reveal some real substance and depth.

You want that for Aniston in "Management," too, but the script from Stephen Belber doesn't give her enough room to breathe and shine. A playwright and screenwriter ("Tape," "The Laramie Project") directing for the first time, Belber surprisingly goes heavy on the quirk in this romantic comedy and never develops a romance that feels believable.

Everything about the relationship between Aniston's Sue Claussen and Steve Zahn's Mike Cranshaw feels contrived: the way they meet (she's a guest at the low-budget motel where he's the night manager), they way they first hook up (she walks into the laundry room and kisses him out of nowhere), the way they fall in love (he crisscrosses the country stalking her until he finally wears her down).

They never make sense as a couple; then again, neither of them is terribly well fleshed-out individually. And that's a problem when we're expected to root for them to figure out a life together, despite their baggage and the geographical distance that divides them.

Mike is in a state of arrested development, living and working at the Kingman, Ariz., motel owned by his parents (Fred Ward and an underused Margo Martindale). In his late 30s, he still has a Run-DMC poster on the wall of his room, which is filled with cheap, mismatched furniture. Zahn is an often likable actor, but even he can't get much going with a character who has so little going for him.

For some reason, though, Mike is smitten by the simple, standoffish Sue from the moment she checks in. A native of Columbia, Md., she's traveling through town as part of her work selling generic paintings to hang on the walls of generic motels like Mike's. He finds dumb reasons to talk and awkwardly flirt with her but they never genuinely seem to click. (The moment she gives in and lets him briefly touch her perfect butt is good for a laugh at first, but the more it's referenced, the more tired it becomes.)

Sue is inexplicably closed off, though; we learn a little bit about her from the charity work she does with the homeless back in Maryland, but otherwise we never understand why she's so stoic and reluctant to fall in love. And so not only does it seem impetuous and immature when Mike gathers all his cash and flies across the country to be with her, it makes no sense emotionally.

Woody Harrelson livens things up briefly as Sue's eccentric, once-and-future boyfriend, a punk rocker turned frozen-yogurt mogul who lives in a McMansion in Aberdeen, Wash. (Mike follows Sue there, too. He is persistent.)

But amusing as he is, Harrelson's character only makes you wonder how a dud like Sue managed to wind up with a wild card like him.

"Management," a Samuel Goldwyn Films release, is rated R for language. Running time: 93 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.