The Ex
What a cast! Scrubs, Studio 60, and Arrested Development, supported by James Grodin, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Amy Adams, Donal Logue! How could this movie be a dud? I don’t know, exactly why, but it is. The Ex is a high-energy yawn, stuffed with promise and frosted with expectation. First-time screenwriters David Guion and Michael Handelman have achieved the impossible by having their script made into a movie with recognizable names, but they created a mishmash of unfunniness that does not bode well for their 2008 project Dinner for Schmucks. Director Jesse Peretz (unlike his talented cast) did not apparently have enough experience to compensate for the script problems, but it can’t be as simple as that.
Zach Braff is polishing his “aren’t I adorable” persona but not adding that element X that made him so likeable in Garden State. The script tells us to find him sympathetic, like having wife Amanda Peet detailing his moral sensibilities and flighty professional life, but we don’t see the man she loves in his performance. The titular ex is played by Jason Bateman, who (as the previews hint) plays the best comedy sociopath since Beetlejuice. It is evident from his first couple of minutes on screen that Bateman is not to be trifled with, and indeed, were it not for his expertly delivered lines and brilliant deadpan evil, we would have absolutely no basis for knowing or caring for any of these characters. Bateman does a lot of the heavy lifting, making up for the script’s lack of depth of character and plot. When the climax happens, the plot nearly derails all his good work in one simple gesture.
Bateman is working with Braff under Charles Grodin at a weird new-agey sensibilities style ad agency. Grodin is still a craftsman with a character but he is given so little to do with his that I became depressed by him. The aforementioned support team of great actors might as well have been Central Casting B-listers, they were given nothing at all to do with their talents and only served to make you go, “Ooh! Amy Adams is in this!” They don’t even have time to transcend their material, though Donal Logue comes close.
The comedy, it seems, is supposed to come from a farcical suspicion on Braff’s part that Bateman is evil, while everyone else thinks he’s great. A classic plot device, to be sure, coupled with another: the guy trying to keep his job under extreme circumstances. Well, the extreme circumstances are either impossibly far-fetched (well outside a reasonable circle of expectation), insanely self-created, or so obviously sourced that no miscommunication (the bedrock of comedy) is possible. It would be equally entertaining for say, Joe to tell Steve to tie Steve’s shoe laces together, and then have Steve fall over and blame Joe. Hilarious! (Only ad people would read “hilarious!” out of its very facetious context here.)
Amanda Peet, a real life new mom, plays a new mom here, and she seems like a really cool, funny mom to have. While that’s great in an ensemble or if you’re her spouse or kid, it doesn’t leave much for actor Peet to do alone in the house with the baby, except react to Braff in predictable ways. The whole movie is so generic feeling and such a blatant waste of precious smart-comedy resources, I can’t advise anyone to see it. I gave it Network with Snacks because Jason Bateman needs a vehicle for his brilliance wherever he can get one.
MPAA Rating PG-13
Release date 5/11/07
Time in minutes 89
Director Jesse Peretz
Studio Weinstein Company
