“The Ex”
Director Jesse Peretz
THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
Sitting through “The Ex” is akin to watching a Juilliard-trained dancer in a strip club or an Olympic-medalist figure skater dressed up as Goofy in Disney on Ice. There’s just so much talent going to waste.
The idea of pairing comedy heavyweights Zach Braff and Jason Bateman sounds like it should be a surefire hit.
Unfortunately, “The Ex” is nothing of the sort. It is a movie that never should have seen the light of day, luring unsuspecting moviegoers by trading in on the good name of its leads.
Tom (Braff) is a young man whose unwavering principles have cost him his latest job. With his newborn arriving the day of his firing, he and his wife decide to relocate from New York to Ohio to start a new career.
There, he struggles to adapt to the foreign environment while contending with the villainous machinations of Chip (Bateman), his wheelchair-bound sociopath of a coworker ““ who also happens to be his wife’s ex-boyfriend.
The movie’s complete and utter drought of humor will leave audiences parched like a caravan trekking through Death Valley, dying with the thirst for some actual comedy. What few laughs the movie manages to elicit can be attributed solely to Braff and Bateman’s expressive faces and nuanced deliveries of jokes less funny than a Bazooka Joe wrapper.
Fundamentally, “The Ex” is vaguely reminiscent of “Meet the Parents” in the way that the contents of a septic tank are reminiscent of last night’s five-course meal.
The critical flaw in the movie lies in the fact that the concept of a beleaguered straight man, fighting to prove himself in the face of adversity, only works when the jokes are funny and the protagonist likeable.
The problem is ““ Braff’s boyish charm aside ““ that Tom is not a nice guy. The moral fortitude that puts the plot into motion in the beginning quickly evaporates into thin air. He soon behaves like a total jerk to everyone around him for no other reason than he has to for the script to limp along to its inevitable and disappointing conclusion.
Unless the idea of seeing truly talented comedic actors reenacting the mediocre product of a drunken improv comedy session is appealing, avoid this car accident of a movie at all costs.
““ Dean Leng
Contact Leng at dleng@media.ucla.edu.