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Film

Risky humor undoes 'Ex' cool guy

A daffy father-in-law and a handicapped romantic rival effortlessly deflate a smug windbag in The Ex.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published May 10, 2007

Zach Braff is getting on my nerves, so it was a pleasant surprise to find actors able to steal The Ex from under his prominent nose.

Braff gets top billing as Tom Riley, an "assistant associate creative" at a new-age Ohio advertising firm. He does his usual smug neurotic routine, always wisecracking more than his fighting spirit will back up.

The Ex is a step backward from Garden State and The Last Kiss, movies which convinced young Americans that Braff is disaffectedly cool.

He's upstaged here by Charles Grodin, who plays Riley's father-in-law, the person who got him hired. Grodin was a wonderfully unctuous screen presence for years. Then he disappeared, after failed TV shows proved that's how he actually behaves.

At 72, Grodin is back in movies after a 13-year absence, still hilariously earnest, with a touch of Fred Willard's improvised daffiness.

Tom's rival at the office - and for the affections of his wife, Sofia (Amanda Peet) - is Chip Sanders, played by Jason Batemen. I've never thought Bateman was particularly funny, even though overheated TV critics hailed him for his role in Arrested Development. But maybe I was wrong.

Bateman's Chip is as uptight as his bowties, a brown-nosing schemer par excellence and paralyzed from the waist down. Sofia was only one of the women left breathless by his lovemaking, and he has kept her undies to prove it.

The Ex works best when Braff simply reacts to Grodin's and Bateman's complete devotion to their roles. The father-in-law scenes are funnier because Dad buys into the firm's incense-and-peppermints office model, including tossing an imaginary "Yes Ball" back and forth.

Chip's scenes are more amusing because Bateman pushes buttons with insouciant flair. He sets Tom up as a cheater in a wheelchair basketball game and lobs a variety of virility digs.

When Grodin and Bateman aren't around, a supporting cast, including Saturday Night Live's Amy Poehler and Fred Armisen, picks up Braff's slack. Armisen's marriage counseling scene proves that TV sketch ideas can give ordinary movies a temporary lift.

Poking fun at handicaps is dicey and downright funny when the joke goes both ways, as it does in the best parts of The Ex. The Farrelly brothers (There's Something About Mary, The Ringer) made this kind of humor respectable simply by treating physically and emotionally challenged people as people, not pity pots.

Any comedy like The Ex that suggests compassion is risky has something on the Yes Ball.

Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com.

Grade: B-

Director: Jesse Peretz

Cast: Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Jason Bateman, Charles Grodin, Mia Farrow, Donal Logue, Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen

Screenplay: David Guion, Michael Handelman

Rating: PG-13; crude and sexual humor, profanity

Running time: 86 min.

[Last modified May 9, 2007, 21:05:31]