Rightly or wrongly, certain types of movie plots or character types often become associated with certain performers. While he started as a hard-hitting action hero, people nowadays think of Jackie Chan as that lovable Asian dude who appears in comedies. The same holds true for Leslie Nielsen despite a long career of dramatic roles long before the "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" films forever changed everyone's minds about him.
When you mention a generally good-natured guy who, for reasons within and outside of his control, gets caught up in goofy, embarrassing, and outrageous predicaments and thus inadvertently becomes distanced from his loved ones, it's easy to think of Ben Stiller since he's made quite a career out of playing such types in such predicaments.
Thus, when one hears about or experiences the plot for "The Ex," the first reaction for many will be "that sounds like a Ben Stiller movie." After all, it features such a good-natured guy who's married, about to become a dad, and ends up being fired from his job because he just can't keep his mouth shut.
As a result, he, the wife, and their newborn move out of the city where he takes a job working for his father-in-law in a business completely foreign to him. To make matters worse, his wheelchair-bound boss once had a thing for his wife back in their earlier, young days.
Accordingly, and although no one else seems to believe him, his boss then sets out to make him look bad in hopes of getting back with his one-time lover. From that point on, the two try to undermine each other, with the protagonist reacting in shocked indignation and pent-up frustration as things repeatedly don't go his way and everyone else progressively questions his judgment.
Can't you just see Stiller in that role, especially with the disability angle calling up memories of similar things found in "There's Something About Mary?" For better or worse, Stiller isn't anywhere to be found, and in his place, we have Zach Braff apparently trying to channel his more famous predecessor as the same sort of character in the same sort of movie.
The results offer a smattering of laughs, but not much more as what's present isn't terribly inspired. Moreover, director Jesse Peretz and writers David Guion & Michael Handelman prove they aren't up there with the Farrelly brothers (and their writers) in terms of offering up but not going too far with outrageous but good-natured comedy about those with disabilities.
There's a scene where Tom has to play wheelchair basketball (thus putting him at the disadvantage), and another where he tries to prove that Chip really doesn't need that chair, but they're only amusing at best and make one wonder how much better Stiller probably would have been in reacting to the outcome of said events.
The resultant strain on Tom and Sofia's marriage (she being stuck at home with the kid but longing to be a full-time lawyer again) doesn't do much either. That also holds true for Charles Grodin's return to the big screen for the first time in more than a decade (Oh, how he's underused and makes one fondly recall some of his pre-coming out of retirement roles). Mia Farrow is also present, but has even less to do.
Many viewers, however, will be more focused on the titular misnomer. After all, Jason Bateman's character (the one in the wheelchair) isn't the "ex" to Amanda Peet's one. They slept together once, but were otherwise just friends, so it seems those responsible for naming the film were stretching the common association with such a title. Of course, it isn't as misleading as the original one, "Fast Track," that similarly doesn't make sense.
The most entertaining thing the film has to offer is when young Lucien Maisel plays a neighbor kid whose big talent is the ability to stuff an entire hamburger into his mouth and swallow the thing whole in one gulp. I have no idea if some sort of camera trickery is involved or if the kid can really do that, but it's an unexpected and funny visual treat. It's just too bad the film doesn't exude that same with the rest of the material.
Needing more imaginative, fun, and humorous attempts by the two men to undermine each other, "The Ex" ends exactly as you'll probably expect. Especially if you've seen most any Ben Stiller film of this ilk. The film rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
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