Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn in ‘Management’

Have you ever felt that 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 opens today, Sept. 9 at local cinemas. It stars Hollywood sweetheart Jennifer Aniston and funny guy Steve Zahn.

“Management” chronicles a chance meeting between Mike Cranshaw (Steve Zahn) and Sue Claussen (Jennifer 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 – “The People Vs. Larry Flynt,” “No Country For Old Men”), 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.”

For first-time director Belber, working with an actor with Jennifer Aniston’s gifts and background helped hone the unique mix of comedy and heart that he sought for the character. “I wanted Sue to be a more complex woman than you see in a lot of romantic comedies,” he says. “And Jennifer was approaching this film in the same way I had, which is, yes, it’s funny and cute and weird, but it’s also coming from a genuine place. Just talking with her the first time I felt she got that about this movie, and she was willing to go there. And, obviously, her comic timing in general couldn’t be better and I knew that going in.”

Belber’s script resonated so much with Steve Zahn upon his first reading that he knew, without ever talking to the filmmakers that he had to play Mike. “I really thought, ‘Man, I’m perfect for this,’” the actor recalls.

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 Harrelson was the filmmakers’ first and only choice. “It was just so last minute that we lucked 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.”

Catch an unlikely romance blossom between an uptight traveling saleswoman and an underachieving motel manager in “Management” as it opens today at your favorite theaters from Viva International Pictures.