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Management Just Middling

Oddball rom-com brings mixed reviews

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted May 15, 2009 12:22 PM CDT

(Newser) – Management isn’t your typical Hollywood fare, and it’s got critics divided. It tells of a quasi-creepy loser (Steve Zahn) pursuing a sales rep (Jennifer Aniston) with a solo life, and somehow holding her attention.

It’s “the rare romantic comedy to use good works, recycling and life-improving charities as the ultimate aphrodisiac,” writes Betsey Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. The film “doesn’t always work,” but “it’s a nice change of pace.”

Roger Ebert says the acting saves the film: Because Jennifer Aniston “succeeds” as the sales rep, the film “works as a sweet rom-com with some fairly big laughs,” he writes in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Owen Gleiberman, in Entertainment Weekly, isn’t so sure about Steve Zahn’s “dazed solipsistic zaniness,” noting that “he's 41 now, and it no longer looks cute on him.”
First-time director Stephen Belber “comes close to the sweet spot,” but “he’s not there yet,” writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone.

[Images (2)]

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In this image released by Samuel Goldwyn Films, Steve Zahn, right, and Jennifer Aniston are shown in a scene from, "Management." (AP Photo)

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Management Just Middling