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Management: 3 of 5 stars

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Sentinel Staff Writer

Management, a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn, covers a lot of ground – emotionally and geographically. It’s kind of all over the place – a dark “stalker” comedy first act, over-the-top courtship second act, oddly spiritual and romantic third act. It just might be the oddest ever opening night film at the Florida Film Festival.

Zahn is Mike, the arrested development son of folks (Margo Martindale, Fred Ward) who run The Kingman Motor Inn in Kingman, Arizona. Aniston is Sue, a businesswoman who checks in and becomes the instant object of Mike’s attention and affections. Despite the fact that she’s out of his league, that he is, at best, a naive small-town rube and gauche to boot, she allows herself to toy with him. Then she hits him with that flinty look we’ve seen Aniston give nosy interviewers. But Mike won’t be denied. He pursues her cross country and despite her “This is INAPPROPRIATE” rejections, he persists.

It’s not logical, though love never is. And it becomes a funnier, wackier movie when Woody Harrelson (as a one-time punk rocker) and Tzi Ma show up.

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But as disorganized and illogical as it is, Stephen Belber’s film has a romance that somehow resonates. People change other people and love changes us all -- sometimes for the better. We just have to get past the stalking .

Screening at: 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 27; 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 4, Regal.

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