''The Ex'' is a 2006 American
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
directed by
Jesse Peretz
Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968) is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band which fo ...
and starring
Zach Braff
Zachary Israel Braff['Scrubs' Star Zach Braff Wows ...](_blank)
,
Amanda Peet
Amanda Peet (born January 11, 1972) is an American actress. She began her career with small parts on television, and made her feature film debut in '' Animal Room'' (1995). Her portrayal of Jill St. Claire in '' The Whole Nine Yards'' (2000) bro ...
and
Jason Bateman. The film had a wide release planned for January 19, 2007, and then March 9, 2007. It was originally promoted under the working title ''Fast Track''. It was released on May 11, 2007. Co-stars include
Charles Grodin
Charles Sidney Grodin (April 21, 1935 – May 18, 2021) was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including '' The Virginian''. After a small part ...
, in his first film appearance since 1994,
Donal Logue
Donal Francis Logue (born February 27, 1966) is a Canadian actor. He starred in the film '' The Tao of Steve'' and has had roles in the TV series ''Sons of Anarchy'', ''Vikings'', ''Grounded for Life'', ''Copper'', '' Terriers'', and, as Detecti ...
and
Mia Farrow
Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...
.
The film generally received negative reviews from critics. It had a gross of $5,178,640.
Plot
Living in Manhattan, Tom is a cook who has difficulty keeping a steady job. His wife, Sofia, is an attorney. When their first child is born, they agree that she will be a full-time mom and he will work hard to get promoted.
When Tom gets fired after defending his friend Paco, he takes a job in Ohio working at the ad agency where his father-in-law is the assistant director. Assigned to report to Chip, who is a strict and hard-working
paraplegic and Sofia's ex-boyfriend from high school. Chip is still obsessed with her, so he conspires to make Tom's work life miserable. As Tom's frustrations mount, he seems to sway Sofia to his side.
Tom begins to suspect that Chip isn't handicapped at all and goes through his desk. He finds a photo of him playing tennis and rushes to his in-laws' house to see his wife and show her the picture. He finds Chip having dinner with Sofia and her parents and holding his child. Tom tries to prove that Chip isn't actually paralyzed by dragging him up a flight of stairs and then throws him, expecting him to stand up to prevent falling.
Chip doesn't stand up (the photo actually being his late twin brother) and Tom is humiliated in front of his family. Later, he confronts and attacks him, where Chip reveals that he really can walk, but can't fight outside of his chair. Sitting back down, Chip beats him severely and revealing he plans to sleep with Sofia, to Tom's increased rage.
It's revealed that Paco had called Chip under the guise of being an ad agency boss in Barcelona, telling him he got a job and convincing him to fly to Spain. Excited by the news, Chip goes to Sofia and asks her to come with him. However, Tom accosts them both and convinces her not to go with him. Chip, angry that Sofia chose Tom over him, heartlessly mocks him, saying he "faked his orgasm" to Sofia before getting out of his chair and walking out.
While chastising them from outside, Chip is hit by a bus and ends up paralyzed from the waist down, crippling him for real. Tom and Sofia have moved out of Ohio and her dad is helping him start his own ad business. Now, the couple have switched positions, Tom becoming a
stay-at-home dad while Sofia becomes a full-time lawyer again. During the credits Chip is shown being tossed out of the ad company in Spain, and later on Tom's friend sees Chip in the middle of the running of the bulls on TV.
Cast
*
Zach Braff
Zachary Israel Braff['Scrubs' Star Zach Braff Wows ...](_blank)
as Tom Reilly
*
Amanda Peet
Amanda Peet (born January 11, 1972) is an American actress. She began her career with small parts on television, and made her feature film debut in '' Animal Room'' (1995). Her portrayal of Jill St. Claire in '' The Whole Nine Yards'' (2000) bro ...
as Sofia Kowalski-Reilly
*
Jason Bateman as Chip Sanders
*
Charles Grodin
Charles Sidney Grodin (April 21, 1935 – May 18, 2021) was an American actor, comedian, author, and television talk show host. Grodin began his acting career in the 1960s appearing in TV serials including '' The Virginian''. After a small part ...
as Bob Kowalski
*
Mia Farrow
Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera '' Peyton Place'' and gained further recognition for her subsequent ...
as Amelia Kowalski
* Lucian Maisel as Wesley
*
Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler (; born September 16, 1971) is an American comedian, actress, writer, producer, and director. After studying improv at Chicago's Second City and ImprovOlympic in the early 1990s, Poehler co-founded the improvisational-comedy tro ...
as Carol Lane
*
Paul Rudd
Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame i ...
as Leon
*
Fred Armisen
Fereydun Robert Armisen (born December 4, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. With his comedy partner Carrie Brownstein, Armisen was the co-creator and co-star of the IFC sketch comedy series '' Portlandia''. ...
as Manny
*
Donal Logue
Donal Francis Logue (born February 27, 1966) is a Canadian actor. He starred in the film '' The Tao of Steve'' and has had roles in the TV series ''Sons of Anarchy'', ''Vikings'', ''Grounded for Life'', ''Copper'', '' Terriers'', and, as Detecti ...
as Don Wollebin
*
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams (born August 20, 1974) is an American actress. Known for both her comedic and dramatic roles, she has been featured three times in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actresses. She has received various accolades, incl ...
as Abby March
*
Josh Charles as Forrest Mead
*
Marin Hinkle
Marin Elizabeth Hinkle (born March 23, 1966) is an American actress. Among many television and movie roles, she is best known for playing Judy Brooks on the ABC television drama ''Once and Again'', Judith Harper-Melnick on the CBS sitcom ''Two ...
as Karen
*
Romany Malco Romany relates or may refer to:
*The Romani people or Romany people, also known as Gypsies
*Romani language or Romany language, the language of the Romani people
*"Romany", the pseudonym of a broadcaster and writer of Romani descent, George Bramwel ...
as Hakeem Oliver
*
Yul Vazquez
Yul Vazquez (born March 18, 1965) is a Cuban-American actor and musician. He has appeared in '' Runaway Bride'' (1999), ''Bad Boys II'' (2003), ''War of the Worlds'' (2005), '' American Gangster'' (2007), ''The A-Team'' (2010), '' Captain Philli ...
as Paco
Critical response
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds a 19% approval rating based on 101 reviews with an average rating of 4.34/10. The site's consensus states: "''The Ex'' suffers from inept direction and characters that are either unsympathetic or plain unpleasant to watch." By comparison,
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 32, based on 24 reviews.
Several film critics said the film felt truncated.
Lou Lumenick of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' said the film "seems arbitrarily edited to squeeze in extra screenings before it's killed by word-of-mouth."
Film critics also felt that the majority of the cast's talents were wasted.
Many film critics also compared the film to a sitcom. Pam Grady of Reel.com said the film "never rises above the level of a TV show grotesquely inflated for the big screen."
Jesse Peretz
Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968) is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band which fo ...
was criticized for his direction by many critics. Phoebe Flowers of the '' South Florida Sun-Sentinel'' said the film was "directed with a breathtaking lack of instinct by Jesse Peretz." A few critics described the film as half-baked. Sean Means of '' The Salt Lake Tribune'' said "It's like undercooked lasagna: lots of layers, but the flavors never blend."[ Bill Muller of '']The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'' said the film was Zach Braff
Zachary Israel Braff['Scrubs' Star Zach Braff Wows ...](_blank)
's most average movie so far. Steven Rea of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' said that after '' The Last Kiss'' and '' Garden State'', " Braff's shtick...is getting tired."[ Desson Thomson of '']The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' said the film "marks an all-time low for actor Zach Braff -- his ''Gigli
''Gigli'' ( ) is a 2003 American romantic comedy crime film written and directed by Martin Brest and starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bartha, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Lainie Kazan.
Despite popular media giving attention a ...
'', if you will.."
The screenwriters, David Guion and Michael Handelman, virtually disowned the finished film. Handelman said, "I think what we wrote was meant to be a bit less broad than the film that came out. I think a lot of what you see in either of those films is stuff that was not written by us even though we’re the only credited writers on that." Guion added, "That movie was a bit of a cautionary story for screenwriters in terms of that it was a movie that struggled a little bit and didn’t test well initially, and the financers panicked and said, 'We better show a lot of people getting hit in the balls'... It was unfortunate because the director, Jesse Peretz
Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968) is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band which fo ...
, is great and very talented, but the movie was ultimately taken out of his hands."
Zach Braff
Zachary Israel Braff['Scrubs' Star Zach Braff Wows ...](_blank)
and Jason Bateman were praised for their performances by several critics. Roger Moore of the ''Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...
'' said "Braff and Bateman make this patchwork just funny enough to be worth our trouble."[ Jason Bateman was praised by several film critics as being the best part of the movie.][ David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews said "there's little doubt that Bateman deserves the lion's share of praise thanks to his scene-stealing work as Tom's hilariously smug nemesis."
]
Box office performance
The film opened at #12 at the U.S. box office, earning $1.4 million in 1,009 theaters in its opening weekend. The film went on to gross $3,093,394 in its nine-week theatrical run in the United States. In other territories, the film grossed $2,085,246 making its total worldwide gross $5,178,640.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ex (2006 film), The
2006 films
2006 comedy films
American comedy films
Films produced by Anne Carey
Films scored by Edward Shearmur
Films directed by Jesse Peretz
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
The Weinstein Company films
2000s English-language films
2000s American films