An unlikely romance in Management

MANILA, Philippines - Have you ever felt your life was going nowhere? But just when you’re about to give up and accept the fact that you’re destined to be alone forever, along comes the person who can change it all. Such is the dilemma of one single guy in the new romantic comedy Management, which is now showing in local cinemas. It stars Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn.

The film chronicles a chance meeting between Mike Cranshaw (Zahn) and Sue Claussen (Aniston).

When Sue checks into the roadside motel owned by Mike’s parents in Arizona, what starts with a bottle of wine “compliments of management” soon evolves into a multi-layered, cross-country journey of two people looking for a sense of purpose. Mike, an aimless dreamer, bets it all on a trip to Sue’s workplace in Maryland — only to find that she has no place for him in her carefully ordered life. Buttoned down and obsessed with making a difference in the world, Sue goes back to her yogurt mogul ex-boyfriend Jango (Woody Harrelson), who promises her a chance to head his charity operations. But having found something worth fighting for, Mike pits his hopes against Sue’s practicality, and the two embark on a twisted, bumpy, freeing journey to discover that their place in the world just might be together.

“The characters in the film have gaping human needs that are driving them, and when you have that you can go as broad as you want if it’s grounded in this human need to connect,” explains writer/director Stephen Belber, the acclaimed playwright and screenwriter who makes his feature film debut with Management.

The third key role in the odd love triangle is Jango, an ex-punk yogurt mogul who becomes Mike’s adversary for Sue’s heart, and acclaimed actor Woody was the filmmakers’ first and only choice. “It was just so last minute that we got lucky into getting him,” says Belber. “He was available and he was awesome. He was beyond what I could have hoped for, and just brought a weirdness and humor to Jango that I couldn’t have predicted.“