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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
MANAGEMENT Single in his mid-30s, Mike (Steven Zahn) still lives at home with his parents and cleans rooms at their hotel on an Arizona back road. Lonely, isolated, and socially inept, Mike (Steve Zahn) is stunned to find that when he knocks on the door of an attractive female patron late at night, the alarming ploy actually works, and he is let in. Not only does it work, but it works with Jennifer Aniston. Her character, Sue, cold and detached, feels a little needy on her business trip following a bad breakup. They share a drink. She lets him touch her butt. They have sex. Then he totally stalks her all the way back to her home in Maryland. He creeps her out even more when he confesses he doesn’t have enough money for a return ticket back to Arizona, nor does he want to return. The mix of sweetness and stalking continues to get more extreme and tangled than you ever expected in a Jennifer Aniston vehicle. In her best and most dramatic role since 2002’s The Good Girl, Aniston leaves the disarming smiles at home, and plays Sue’s neuroses simplistically: a blank expression only mitigated by the occasional facial twitch. Like Brad Pitt’s quirkier characters, Steve Zahn gives Mike the upbeat but vaguely autistic countenance in a way few other actors could provide. This is clearly a triumph for two actors with something to prove. But the film is lackluster. Like a lot of recent comedies, this was made to be a little film—one with a ticket to the festival circuit, lofty DVD goals, and ambition for long-term success on cable movie channels. And, sure, if I wanted to make a romantic comedy in 2009 about a winsome loser and a flawed girl who’s out of his league, I would completely rip off Knocked Up too. Except I didn’t think much of Knocked Up, so that makes this creepy stalker comedy all the sadder to me.
Writer/director Stephen Belber flips the film from offbeat tale to
borderline disaster when he later puts Mike on a plane to search for Sue. Creepy,
sad, and unrealistic, this impulsive quest is held by the film’s
characters as a pivotal romantic moment, spilling earnest transcendence
onto their lives like the coming of Jesus. Mike’s romanticism is
undeniable in their eyes. But more than romantic, this story turn feels
like lazy plotting and unwarranted character development. Be wary of
films with almost as many producers as you have fingers on both hands,
and be especially wary when one of them is the lead actress.
Zachary Jones
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