These early scenes are so painfully awkward that at times you want to turn away and cover your eyes.  However, Mike and Sue feel so much like real people, as opposed to shiny, witty, one-dimensional Hollywood creations, that you can’t turn away because you’re anxious and eager to see what happens next with them.  

Without the driving force of Mike’s love for Sue, there would be no next at all in this film.  Every time I wondered how there could possibly be any more scenes in a story about these two people, this guy would find a way to try again.  With his lovelorn puppy dog eyes, Mike immediately reminds one of a loyal golden retriever who will go to any length to fetch his stick and bring it back (yes – Jennifer Aniston is the stick in this metaphor – go fetch).  Mike makes a number of grand romantic gestures that in any other film would be the climactic scene.  Sweet or creepy?  You decide.  Do the gestures work in the end?  I won’t say.  Management has that rarest of qualities for a modern American film – unpredictability.  Far be it from me to ruin that for you.

The success of any romance is tied directly to the likeability and acting chops of the lead actors and Aniston and Zahn both turn in great performances.  When I heard they would be playing opposite each other, I was wary of their potential for on-screen chemistry.  She is an A-list movie star and he would normally play the best friend of the guy who gets to be with her.  In the indie world, and in these two roles, they are perfect for each other.

While I’m on the subject, a word about our female lead:  I am not completely sold on big studio, movie star Jen and the choices she makes, but I just love indie-Jen.  She is sublime in movies like The Good Girl, Friends With Money, Office Space and now Management.  She nails the ‘uncomfortable in her skin, searching for something else’ girl better than anyone can.  Indie-Jen is a girl I’ll keep buying tickets to see, so I hope she sticks around.

With Management, writer-director Stephen Belber has given us a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half in the theater.  It is well written, with believable characters whose plights you care about and well acted, both by the two leads and the small supporting cast surrounding them.  I cannot fail to specifically call out Woody Harrelson, who is perfectly cast and brilliantly funny as Jango, the ex-punk rocker, current frozen yogurt tycoon who competes with Mike for Sue’s heart.  If you saw the movie just for his brief role in it, you would not be disappointed.

The film is not perfect.  There are some ridiculous over-the-top movie moments, but it’s hard to quibble when even they seem to fit the character who creates them.  If you have any place at all in your heart for quirky (I am required by movie-reviewing law to use this word to describe an independent film about offbeat characters) indies about people trying to find a little happiness, see Management.  You won’t regret it.  You also won’t fully grasp this unless you do, but in honor of the film, I leave you with a haiku: