The Ex

The Ex is a frustrating, perpetually insipid comedy that borders on painful at times. Zach Braff stars as Tom Reilly, an all around nice guy who was recently fired for defending a coworker and is now forced to take a job working under his wife’s father at the world’s stupidest ad firm. Amanda Peet plays his wife, Sofia, who has taken it upon herself to quit her job in order to become a full-time mother to their newborn son, adding extra pressure for Tom to succeed in his new job. Their new life goes well enough until, of course, the arrival of Chip (Jason Bateman) into their lives. Chip is a high school friend and brief fling of Sofia’s who seems to never have gotten over her moving on and marrying another man. He’s also in a wheelchair, which, as you can imagine, leads to about 2 dozen moronic paraplegia jokes. Despite whatever sympathy his disability may bring him, Chip is a purely evil saboteur who has set his sights on breaking up Tom and Sofia. As Tom’s “mentor” at his new job, he’s in the position to play mind games on the newbie that gradually cause a rift between him and his wife.

The Ex seems to think it’s a much more capable movie than it actually is. There are scenes, I guess, designed to satire the modern workplace, but they’re all so flat and toothless. It’s mostly just a movie about acting silly. There are some sharp little relationship moments here and there, but for the most part the comedy is stuck in first grade, food fights and all. The movie also feels a bit like an abridged version of a much fuller film. No scene ever really seems to come to full fruition. They all run through a few gags each and then suddenly end, rapidly and succinctly chugging the story along as if someone thought the cure to this movie was to keep it moving fast enough that no one would notice its weaknesses.

Braff, Peet, and Bateman are each so likable and funny that they do manage to keep the movie more or less watchable. Bateman in particular, who is both entertainingly diabolical with Tom and hilariously straight-faced when anyone else is in proximity, really brings something funny to the dead material. It’s not an abysmal film, but it’s so lightweight and meekly funny that it barely even registers.

Grade: C