The Ex (2006)

You won't be disappointed!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The movie is 88 minutes. The special features adds 15 minutes at least and offers 3 alternates endings. Thus i understand why i got the feeling to watch a slapdash movie. It have been produced with a tag-line and the idea have been difficult to gather. In fact, the movie is really slow to start and when the funny moments arrive, it's too late.It's a pity because the American movies criticizing work life are scarce. If "Devil wore Prada" wasn't really about the real workers, here, the work environment is unfortunately ridiculous (a hippie boss and a cunning colleague). The only good thing is the typology of the cast: the old bunch (Farrow, Grondin), the young team (Peet, Braff) and the newcomers (Bateman, Adams). Amanda is a cool mother and a responsible wife and it's great she doesn't loss her smile with years.

After losing his job as a New York City cook, lovable slacker-type Zach Braff (as Tom Reilly) finally decides to accept an offer from his wife's father to work for an advertising agency in Ohio. Pretty pregnant Amanda Peet (as Sofia) is a lawyer, but wants to stay home and care for the couple's baby. Arriving in their new suburban home, the trio are greeted by Ms. Peet's parents Charles Grodin (as Bob Kowalski) and Mia Farrow (as Amelia). Mr. Grodin reveals his son-in-law will be trained by Peet's ex-boyfriend from high school, "handicapable" paraplegic Jason Bateman (as Chip Sanders)...In the workplace, Mr. Braff makes a "faux pas" by tossing an imaginary ball to Mr. Bateman, who can't jump from an unseen wheelchair. Taking a break, Braff next eats Bateman's yogurt. The two men become rivals at work, then Braff learns Bateman wants to rekindle his romance with Peet...This film appears to be available in different versions, and reading reviews and/or comments is likely to give away important plot points. My preference is for the "Unrated" version. Most paraplegic characters are heroic; it always seems like the villainous ones shockingly get up and walk, so it's refreshing to leave the story's "villain" in a wheelchair. However, the cheerleader "dream sequence" is extractable, and some very funny "deleted scenes" should have stayed.Some of the excised material could be considered "politically incorrect" - but, with so much raunchy material out and about, "The Ex" looks more sabotaged than sanctified. Best are director Jesse Peretz' scenes spoofing a touchy-feely "New Age" workplace. Grodin and Ms. Farrow are great together. In fact, Grodin's funny/sad portrayal of an older man trying to adapt to the modern workplace is marvelous; in a layered performance, you can watch his strained façade peel away. Grodin is "Supporting Actor" award-worthy. And, Bateman makes the most of his more tenuous role.******* The Ex (2/8/07) Jesse Peretz ~ Zach Braff, Jason Bateman, Amanda Peet, Charles Grodin

This movie has a ton of cardboard characters- 2 dimensional people who have odd habits as an excuse for interesting dialog and character development. A number of jokes are set up well, but then when it comes time for the punchline scene it's all limp and wet blanket geek aw shucks humor. This also leans towards a very annoying type of comedy where everything bad happens to one central character as if us watching his misery passes for comedic brilliance..it sure as hell does not. The entire first half of the movie is a setup that simply doesn't need to be there- the movie could have started with him joining the ad agency and then gotten funnier instead of starting off with a long tedious buildup and then never really getting funny.There was about 7 minutes of footage worth watching, and the rest is just twiddling your thumbs wondering how all these people got paid to make this stinker.PLOT: A guy trying to impress his wife joins her dad's company but then has tension with a guy that works there that has a crush on his wife. Work sabotage, set up misunderstandings, passive aggressive situations and various other annoying things that can be solved with a simple ass beating take up the majority of this guy's life and this movie.. and it sucks. At the beginning of this movie you will wonder if you are watching Scrubs outtakes.

i watched this because i reckon Zach Braff is awesome and i know Jason Bateman is a funny man. well i watched this and was disappointed.i'll be honest most disappointed probably by Zach Braff. he was too similar to his character J.D from Scrubs. and he wasn't particularly funny when he was meant to be doing something funny.Jason Bateman was good in the movie but i found i got really annoyed at his character because he's such an a**hole.which wasn't actually something negative.there are just quite too many weird things like the job that Tom (Zach Braff) takes in the movie. i just got a feeling maybe they tried a little too much to be funny, i don't know, thats just my impression. quite disappointing.