Where to watch The Ex
1 1/2 Stars
In Manhattan, Sofia’s an attorney and Tom’s a cook who has a hard time holding a job. When their first child is born, they agree that she’ll be a full-time mom and he’ll get a promotion. When he gets fired, he takes a job in Ohio working at the ad agency where her father is assistant director. Tom’s assigned to report to Chip, a competitive, hard-driving guy who’s in a wheelchair and who’s Sofia’s ex-boyfriend – from high school. Chip still carries a torch for her, so he connives to make Tom’s work life miserable. As Tom’s frustrations mount, it may be that Sofia will take Chip’s side. Is Tom doomed to fail yet again?
The Ex is a purported comedy in which, in concept, only the execution of the material omits the laughs. Zach Braff and Jason Bateman make good foils for one another. Still, this movie can’t decide if it’s sentimental or mean-spirited, and by skirting the line and never committing to either tone, it becomes tame and ineffectual. A competitive Basketball game with a group of wheelchair-bound athletes is just one of the set pieces that doesn’t work. Supporting roles and cameos from typically funny comedians Charles Gordon, Amy Pohler, and Fred Armisen go to waste.
I couldn’t find one scene in The Ex in which the characters behave like normal people. The formula of the screenplay dictates the improbable actions and ensuing reactions of the people who populate the story. Bateman does the snarky schtick that he’s perfected over the last thirty years and he is undoubtedly the best thing about The Ex. This is a movie that has the stale feel of something that was written during the indie-film boom of the 1990s and produced a decade too late.
Directed by: Jesse Peretz
Written by: David Guion, Michael Handelman
Starring: Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Charles Grodin