Aniston is too good for this film

It's easy to forget that Jennifer Aniston truly can act.

It's easy to get caught up in her sunny looks, in the tabloid frenzy of her off-screen persona, and lose sight of the fact that, when given the opportunity in small, meaty films, such as "The Good Girl" and "Friends With Money" and even the cult comedy "Office Space," she can reveal some real substance and depth.

You want that for Aniston in "Management," too, but the script from Stephen Belber doesn't give her enough room to breathe and shine. A screenwriter ("Tape," "The Laramie Project") directing for the first time, Belber goes heavy on the quirk in this romantic comedy and never develops a believable romance.

Everything about the relationship between Aniston's Sue Claussen and Steve Zahn's Mike Cranshaw feels contrived: the way they meet (she's a guest at the low-budget motel where he's the night manager), the way they first hook up (she walks into the laundry room and kisses him out of nowhere), the way they fall in love (he crisscrosses the country stalking her until he finally wears her down).

They never make sense as a couple; then again, neither of them is terribly well fleshed-out individually.

Mike is in a state of arrested development, living and working at the Kingman, Ariz., motel owned by his parents (Fred Ward and an underused Margo Martindale). In his late 30s, he still has a Run-DMC poster on the wall of his room, which is filled with cheap, mismatched furniture.

For some reason, though, Mike is smitten by the simple, standoffish Sue from the moment she checks in. He finds dumb reasons to talk and awkwardly flirt with her, but they never genuinely seem to click.

Sue is inexplicably closed off; we never understand why she's so stoic and reluctant to fall in love. And so not only does it seem impetuous and immature when Mike gathers all his cash and flies across the country to be with her, but also it makes no sense emotionally.

Woody Harrelson livens things up briefly as Sue's eccentric, once-and-future boyfriend, a punk rocker-turned-frozen-yogurt mogul who lives in a McMansion in Aberdeen, Wash.

But amusing as he is, Harrelson's character only makes you wonder how a dud like Sue managed to wind up with a wild card like him.