It doesn’t mesh, but “The Ex” has moments as funny as anything in movies this year, and a stellar cast of inspired comedians.
The film is in the vein of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” but much more low-key. Zach Braff, star of “Scrubs” and “Garden State,” plays a Peter Pan type named Tom, who loses yet another job – just as his wife Sofia (Amanda Peet) is about to give birth to their first child.
Bowing to reality, Tom agrees to quit Manhattan, move back to his wife’s Ohio hometown and accept a job at her father’s advertising agency. Well, it’s a nice idea, anyway.
Unfortunately, Dad (Charles Grodin) works for an agency where the employees talk about team building and throw an imaginary “Yes Ball” to each other.
Worse, Tom’s immediate boss, Chip (Jason Bateman, from “Arrested Development”), once dated Tom’s wife when they were in high school. Chip is the kind of guy who still knows all the old football cheers. He’s in a wheelchair, which is the source of many of the film’s physical jokes (this sometimes steps into bad taste, but Chip is such a specifically rotten person that he clearly isn’t representing any group – just his own unique Chip-ness).
There’s only mild suspense from any of this, since we never doubt that Sofia truly loves Tom. However, Chip does try to seduce her by bringing over a DVD of “Coming Home” to watch on TV.
Bateman does smarmy extremely well, and Grodin brings his crack timing to his first movie role in a dozen years. Mia Farrow plays his wife, in the only role that doesn’t offer many comic opportunities.
There are decent bits from “Saturday Night Live” players Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen. Paul Rudd and Romany Malco, “40-Year-Old Virgin” buddies, do well with cameo parts.
Rudd and Malco starred in the previous film by “Ex” director Jesse Peretz, “The Chateau,” which I nominate as one of the great unsung comedies of the new millennium. Peretz has a special talent for creating fresh comic energy, and you can feel the pleasure of the actors in many scenes here.
I think the reason it doesn’t quite come together is that Peretz’s talent isn’t quite in tune with the clever but conventional script by David Guion and Michael Handelman. They’ve cooked up lots of funny ideas, but using familiar, expected ingredients.
Amanda Peet and Zach Braff star in “The Ex.”
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