Of course the star makes a difference. Maybe not the kind of difference studios wish they made (unless it’s Will Smith or a satirization of a given industry starring Will Ferrell); they certainly don’t have the impact of good characters, established worlds, an irresistible hook, or a coherent story. But as execs have pointed out, a bad movie with Bruce Willis will make more money than a bad movie without Bruce Willis. The trick is finding a star enough people like.
I never watched Scrubs until I fell in love with Garden State, and I can assure you The Ex will be more enjoyable if (like me) you’re a fan of its star, Zach Braff. It will be nearly as enjoyable if you’re a fan of Arrested Development and its star, Jason Bateman (though he plays the bad guy here), and it’s also worth seeing if you enjoy the presence of Amanda Peet.
Braff plays Tom Riley, who at the beginning of the movie is a chef at a five-star restaurant that caters to Wall Street brokers, while his pregnant wife, Sofia (Peet), is about to quit her job at a successful law firm to be a full-time mom. They plan on living off of Tom’s upcoming promotion, until his boss, a hot-headed business type who appears to be a stockbroker himself, forces one of Tom’s coworkers to work on the day of his sister’s wedding (Boss: “I can’t keep track of your social lives. You should have told me.” Co-worker: “I did tell you.”), then fires Tom’s best friend when he sticks up for him. It’s a well-timed moment that will hit home for anyone who’s suffered at the hands of a clueless manager. Tom, whom Sofia fell in love with because he cuts through such bullshit, acts as a cipher for the intelligent members of the audience: he covers his boss in butterscotch and chocolate sauce.
Fast forward. Tom and Sofia relocate themselves to the Ohio suburbs, where her dad (Charles Grodin, his first role in 13 years) has gotten Tom a job at an advertising firm. Almost immediately Tom is subjected to the “yes ball,” post-it notes so coworkers can write each other apologies, and a wheelchair-bound mentor, Chip (Bateman) – the “ex” of the title – an irredeemable creep who once slept with his wife and immediately steals his best advertising idea.
You know where this is going. What’s important is how fun it is getting there.
The Ex starts off on the wrong track (do we really need jokes about misshapen genitals and women defecating during labour?), but soon picks up. The best part is how most of its set-ups, no matter how ludicrous, don’t come off as contrivances. It makes sense when Tom and Sofia meet Wesley (newcomer Lucian Maisel), a boy next door whose father is rarely home for him. It makes sense that this kid eating a burger in one gulp would be a great campaign for a sauce that goes on the hamburgers. It makes sense when Tom and Sofia start hitting each other with baseball bats.
Like all of Braff’s work, there is reasoning behind the madness, and a theme: the more fed up you are with corporate culture, political correctness, and society’s extra-thick layer of bullshit, the more you’ll enjoy it. Obviously I can’t speak for everyone at my advance screening, since I laughed the most out of perhaps nine people there (a few scenes got laughs from the entire audience, and the lady to my right laughed almost as much), and at least two critics left saying they simply don’t “get” Braff. If Garden State and Scrubs’ form of quirky group therapy doesn’t work for you, there’s nothing to change your mind here. But for what it is (and enough people seem to like it), it’s rather good.
This is the kind of breezy entertainment studios could easily make more of and for some reason never seem to.
3.5*
