Themes: Love Triangles, Nothing Goes Right, Parenthood
Main Cast: Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Jason Bateman, Charles Grodin, Mia Farrow
Release Year: 2006
Country: US
Run Time: 84 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Acclaimed music-video director Jesse Peretz made his third feature with this comedy starring Zach Braff and Jason Bateman. Tom (Braff) is an aspiring chef whose wife Sofia (Amanda Peet) has just quit her high-paying job to stay home with their new baby. When it becomes abundantly clear that they can no longer maintain their New York City lifestyle, the family picks up and moves to Sofia's hometown in Ohio, where Tom is hired to work at her father's ad agency. It is there that Tom meets Chip (Bateman), the agency's wheelchair-bound golden boy, who also happened to have a one-night stand with Sofia while the two were cheerleaders in high school. Suddenly, Tom finds himself sabotaged by Chip at every step as the nefarious paraplegic schemes to steal Sofia from him and destroy any chance he might have of success at the agency. Released briefly in 2006 under the title Fast Track, the film was retitled The Ex before receiving a wide release in the Spring of 2007. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Review
The spirit of a good Farrelly brothers movie comes alive in The Ex, a surprisingly likeable comedy, with just enough oddball curves up its sleeve to avoid feeling overly familiar. In fact, in the same year the Farrellys released their misanthropic version of The Heartbreak Kid, director Jesse Peretz reminds them how to get their own tone right -- without losing the naughty edginess. To extend the analogy, Zach Braff plays the role that Ben Stiller used to play better than he currently does, exasperated yet earnest. In such a broad physical comedy, Braff could have slouched toward his tired Scrubs mugging, but here he shows that his more highfalutin projects have rubbed off on him -- at least a little bit. That broad physicality is no indictment, however, as the definite key to this film is Braff's rival, played by Jason Bateman, who's wheelchair-bound yet unworthy of the sympathy usually associated with that. Any viewer who wondered how they were going to pull that off need not worry -- Bateman makes his Chip deliciously detestable, but without crossing over into camp. Their bitter jockeying plays out over a number of good set pieces, most awkwardly, when the able-bodied Braff gets tricked into a game of wheelchair basketball -- where everyone else thinks he's paralyzed. The writing zips, with Amanda Peet giving it more oomph than anyone. Even Charles Grodin has a winning supporting role as Peet's father, showing he's still got whip-smart comic timing. It's risky to hand out such accolades to a relatively inconsequential comedy, but The Ex needs a little extra help, as it was brutally received by a number of critics. That's a shame, because there are a lot of laughs in this movie -- and not just guilty ones, either. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Living in Manhattan, Tom (Zach Braff) is a cook who has a hard time holding down his job and his wife, Sofia (Amanda Peet), is an attorney. When their first child is born, they agree that she'll be a full-time mom and he'll work to get a promotion. When he gets fired over defending his friend Paco (Yul Vazquez), he takes a job in Ohio working at the ad agency where her father is the assistant director. Tom is assigned to report to Chip. Chip is a competitive and hard-driving wheelchair-using man who is coincidentally Sofia's ex-boyfriend from high school. Chip still carries a desire for her, so he conspires to make Tom's work life miserable. As Tom's frustrations mount, Chip begins to sway Sofia to his side.
It's revealed that Paco, Tom's friend had called Chip under the guise of being the ad agency boss in Barcelona, telling Chip that he got the job and convincing him to fly to the country.
During the closing credits, Tom and Paco are eating lunch in Tom's living room and watching TV. When Tom's child is crying from the other room, Tom goes to assist them. Paco ends up changing the channel to news footage of a bull run gone awry in Barcelona and a man wearing a white suit is in a wheelchair, trying to escape as a bull guns for him, his wheelchair flips. Paco tries to summon him to see the news but just as Tom enters the living room, the news footage cuts to an anchorman.
The Ex reunites Romany Malco and Paul Rudd with director Jesse Peretz; they previously worked together on The Chateux
Reception
As of March 21, 2009 on Rotten Tomatoes, 19% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 92 reviews (18 "fresh", 74 "rotten").[1]
Several film critics said the film felt truncated.[2][3] Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said the film "seems arbitrarily edited to squeeze in extra screenings before it's killed by word-of-mouth."[4] Film critics also felt that the majority of the cast's talents were wasted.[3][5][6][7] Many film critics also compared the film to a sitcom.[8][9][10] Pam Grady of Reel.com said the film "never rises above the level of a TV show grotesquely inflated for the big screen."[11]
Zach Braff and Jason Bateman were praised for their performances by several critics.[19][20] Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel said "Braff and Bateman make this patchwork just funny enough to be worth our trouble."[8] Jason Bateman was praised by several film critics as being the best part of the movie.[5][16] David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews said "there's little doubt that Bateman deserves the lion's share of praise thanks to his scene-stealing work as Tom's hilariously smug nemesis."[21]
Box office performance
The film opened at #12 at the U.S. box office, earning $1.39 million in 1,009 theaters in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $3,092,904 in its nine-week theatrical run in the United States.[22]
