Summaries

Synopsis

Mike Flux (Steve Zahn) works at his parents' (Jerry (Fred Ward) & Trish (Margo Martindale) motel as the night manager. He is a one man show and does all the odd jobs around the motel, including cleaning the rooms and the pool. He has no friends and a very lonely existence.

One day he sees Sue (Jennifer Aniston), who is staying at the motel for the weekend. He develops a crush on her and surprises her at her door with a bottle of wine (Mike says its a welcome gift from Management). She doesn't quite know what to make of his approach, shares some wine to be polite (she works for an art company based in Maryland), then asks him to leave. He returns the next day, trying the same trick with champagne, and this time she allows him to touch her butt momentarily (after Mike complements her on having a great butt. Sue is curious if this line ever works on anyone and Mike replies that it doesn't. Sue learns that Mike would consider the line to be working, if he got to touch the woman's butt). As she heads back home the next day she decides to go back and have sex with Mike in the laundry room.

Mike realizes his feelings for Sue and flies to her home in Baltimore. She's shocked to see him there (Mike spends a day with Sue, going with her to her soccer game and then to a homeless shelter where she passes out vouchers for a free meal at the local Burger King), but out of courtesy allows him to stay with her until morning when he can go back home. The next morning Mike tells Sue that he bought only a one-way ticket as he didn't have enough money.

After spending some time together (They go to the amusement park. Mike stops smoking when Sue objects) they get to know each other better as friends, and soon after Mike returns home, Sue stays at the motel again. They decide to go out and have fun. They go for a yoga class. They have lunch together where Sue says that her dream is to run a full-fledged soup kitchen someday.

Mike's mother Trish (Margo Martindale) is very sick, and the two stop by her home to see her.She approves of Sue and tells Mike that he needs to find happiness in his life. Soon after Sue leaves (when she tells Mike that she does not see a long-term future with him in this small little town), Mike's mother passes away. Mike decides to make a change in his life and go after Sue once again.

Mike learns (from her old company office in Baltimore Maryland) that Sue has gotten back together with her old boyfriend, Jango (Woody Harrelson), a former punk rocker turned successful businessman (selling organic yogurt) in Aberdeen, WA. Mike travels to Aberdeen, and since he has no money, he stays at night at the local football field.Mike settles into the new town by taking a job at a Chinese restaurant. The son of the owners, Al (James Hiroyuki Liao), befriends him and allows Mike to stay in the restaurant's basement. Al has heard of Jango and takes Mike to his mansion. Mike is intimidated by Jango's wealth and sexual prowess.

Mike skydives into Sue and Jango's pool to surprise her, but Jango responds by attacking him with an air-soft gun. Feeling bad about what he did, Jango invites Mike and Al over for dinner. Sue says that Mike is an artist whom she met during her last corporate trip. That night, After Jango falls asleep being drunk, Sue goes dancing with Mike and Al. Jango knows Mike has feelings towards Sue and threatens him by arriving next day at Al's restaurant and beating Mike up. Regardless of the threat, Mike, with help from Al, sings a song for Sue outside her window later that night.Sue meets up with Mike the next day, informing him, that she and Jango are getting married that very week. Sue is pregnant, and she wants to be with someone that's in control of his life. In anger after everything he worked for to be with her, Mike tells Sue to leave.

After spending four months in a Buddhist monastery (where he is told that his heart still yearns for something in the outside world. He also masturbated in the monastery), Mike returns to the motel, now being run solely by his father (Fred Ward). After talking about moving on with their lives, Mike's father hands him the deed to the motel. Mike decides to turn the motel into a homeless shelter (he sells all the stuff accumulated in the motel for all these years), something Sue had mentioned always wanting to do. Mike calls her at home to tell her, but Jango answers the phone. He reveals that Sue has left him and is living with her mother. Mike makes his way to Sue's home to ask her for help with the shelter. She's happy to see him and tells him that she had messed up their relationship. Mike tells her he loves her and only wants to take care of her and her baby. The story ends as they embrace.