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50 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 26
  3. Negative: 4 out of 26
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    Management works as a sweet rom-com with some fairly big laughs.
  2. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    75
    Aniston and Zahn are sweet together - their respective characters have built up psychic armor to keep the outside world at bay, and each breaks down the other's in revealing ways.
  3. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    70
    Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn? Who thought that would be a good match? So it's to everyone's ­credit that by the time the ­movie is over, you'll wonder why they were never paired together before.
  4. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    70
    Management remains for the most part as endearing as its leads. Steve Zahn is a wonderful actor who's spent too long in the "hey, it's that guy" best-friend role.
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: Joe Leydon
    70
    Picture benefits greatly from appealing performances by Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn, who deftly apply darker emotional shadings to their characters when necessary, and equally fine work from a small ensemble of solid supporting players.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    70
    Zahn is the single biggest reason why Management is a delightfully screwball romantic comedy and not a crazed-stalker film. And why it works. Like watching a puppy chase its own tail, it's a pleasure watching Mike try to win Sue over.
  7. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    63
    It's a sweetly strange yet uneven comedy, with a charming lead performance by Steve Zahn offset by a lackluster one from Jennifer Aniston.
  8. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Peter Brunette
    60
    Ultimately delivers the goods, even if the goods aren't very fresh.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    60
    Mike may be a bumbling sad sack, but Mr. Zahn gives him just enough spunky appeal to lend this unlikely fly-by-afternoon coupling and its consequences a shred of credibility.
  10. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    58
    Like its protagonist, Management is dopey and impractical, but strangely winning all the same.
  11. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    50
    Playwright Stephen Belber (Match), in his directing debut, comes close to the sweet spot. He's not there yet. But he'll be worth watching next time.
  12. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    Padding disguised as a feature-length screenplay, adapted from Belber's one-act.
  13. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    50
    It's pretty much a waste of everyone's time, especially yours.
  14. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    Painless and predictable, with an amusing if overwrought featured performance by Woody Harrelson.
  15. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Josh Ralske
    50
    Sadly, Management is formulaic indie romantic comedy at its core.
  16. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    A standard-order romantic comedy with many of the expected twists and complications. It suffers from the flaw of not giving the lead characters enough time together.
  17. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    50
    Management is ultimately undone by its own bland idiosyncrasies. It's nothing but a mismanaged opportunity.
  18. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    50
    Each new superfluous Jennifer Aniston rom-com is already met with low expectations, but add some overcooked, middlebrow Indiewood quirk and you've got cinema's purest shade of beige.
  19. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    50
    Though it doesn't always work, it's an idea with its heart in the right place and, paired with nonshock comedy, it's a nice change of pace.
  20. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    50
    A sentimental -- and modestly enjoyable -- fantasy of mutual need.
  21. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    50
    This quirky indie romance is beguiling at first but later succumbs to artifice.
  22. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    Sometimes a movie thinks it's one thing (charming) when it's really something else (creepy). Such is the case with writer-director Stephen Belber's Management.
  23. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    38
    The film is a failure if it can't convince us that these two people belong together. It can't, and barely tries.
  24. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    38
    Sometimes a cute-stalker movie can win the audience's heart. Management only makes you ponder the line between true love and a restraining order.
  25. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    33
    It's dull and crude and silly and without a lick of quality.
  26. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    25
    Isn't it time Steve Zahn grew up? Ever since the '90s, this walking quirk of an actor has pushed his dazed solipsistic zaniness (he's like Michael J. Fox's hillbilly cousin), but he's 41 now, and it no longer looks cute on him.
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.5 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 20 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 4 out of 6
  1. ChadS.
    6
    Romantic comedies often corroborate on the New Wave notion that "the history of cinema is boys photographing girls." What filmmaker Jean Luc Goddard meant, without apology, was that film is, and always will be, largely a patriarchal construct. In other words, the guy, more often than not, gets his girl. For girls, it's harder. No matter how many fish sticks and tater tots Dawn Wiener(Heather Matarazzo) heats up for Steve(Eric Mabius) in Todd Solondz's "Welcome to the Dollhouse", the hunky lead singer of her older brother's clarinet-driven band will never give the plain girl a fighting chance. The cinema is rigged so ordinary men can pursue, and win over, women who are clearly out of their league. With a tradition of conquering underdogs on his side, Mike tells Sue, "You have a great butt," which should earn him a drink tossed in his face, but instead, the professional woman bends over, like the Maggie Gyllenhaal character in Steven Shainberg's "Secretary". Even though Sue is more accomplished than Mike, the submissive position that she assumes, has the unintended effect of revealing how the male hero always has control over the girl he's pursuing, regardless of how great the odds are stacked against him. "Management" is just a little more brazen about the fix than most films. According to this movie, groping works; stalking works too...on both coasts. What "Management" lacks is a genuine romantic moment. Skydiving into a pool is funny, but not romantic, as is serenading Sue with a Bad Company song. When Sue puts her hand on Mike's butt, the film romanticizes her own objectification. At the very least, Mike should tell Sue that she's beautiful.… Full Review »
  2. Deadsarow
    2
    This movie sucks. I am still trying to understand what the point of this wanna-be cute movie is. Throughout the romantic "comedy", I was confused. The way you know a movie is bad is when it confuses the hell out of you without trying to. Horrible movie. Wouldn't recommend it to a horse.… Full Review »
  3. johnny2cents
    3
    Painful. This movie tries really hard to be quirky and many other things butt succeeds at none. You would have to be on LSD to believe that this coupling would ever be possible. It is way too far fetched from reality to accept even in a movie that is trying to be ...well I'm still not sure what it wanted to be. Think it may have needed a little more Woody, I mean the Harrelson character.… Full Review »
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