Copyright 1997-2007 Omniture, Inc. More info available at The tepid comedy ldquo;The Ex rdquo; is noteworthy mostly for assembling a killer cast of players and then doing hardly anything with them.
Tom (Zach Braff in full ldquo;Scrubs rdquo; mode) is a loveable slacker who can rsquo;t keep a job mdash; mostly because he cannot abide the b.
s. endemic to the modern workplace.
He has survived thus far because his wife Sofia (Amanda Peet) is a well-paid Manhattan lawyer.
But now they rsquo;re expecting, and Tom has promised he rsquo;ll step up so that Sofia can be a stay-at-home mom.
This necessitates their moving to Sofia rsquo;s hometown in Ohio, where Tom has been offered a job in his father-in-law rsquo;s ad agency.
The ldquo;Ex rdquo; of the title is Chip (Jason Bateman), the top creative thinker at the ad agency.
Chip has been in a wheelchair since boyhood and works his handicap for maximum effect both on the job and in his personal life mdash; a personal life that includes a torrid high-school encounter with Sofia.
Now Chip does everything he can to undermine Tom on the job, while ensuring that Tom rsquo;s ever-increasing paranoia drives a wedge into his marriage to Sofia.
Director Jesse Peretz ( ldquo;The Chateau rdquo;) and writers David Guion and Michael Handelman have a workable idea here, but with the exception of a few funny moments (like a delivery-room scene early on) they rsquo;ve come up with material more fitting for a so-so TV sitcom.
What rsquo;s really galling, though, is that ldquo;The Ex rdquo; is packed with familiar funny faces (Paul Rudd, Charles Grodin, Mia Farrow, Donal Logue, Josh Charles, recent Oscar nominee Amy Adams and ldquo;SNL rdquo; vets Amy Poehler and Fred Armisten), most of whom don rsquo;t get to do anything funny.
About the only person here who seems to be working hard for laughs is Braff. Even Bateman, who was so brilliantly hysterical on TV rsquo;s ldquo;Arrested Development, rdquo; is denied any major comic moments.
And that rsquo;s a crime.
Starring: Zach Braff, Amanda Peet and Justin Bateman
Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, brief language and a drug reference.
News RSS