Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is a crass comedy aimed at 13-year-olds who like jokes at others' expense. A character in a wheelchair is ridiculed, a cartoon character is a racial stereotype, and there's lots of innuendo about a character's large genitals. There's a generous helping of "f--k"s and "s--t"s, along with scenes in which a husband and wife negotiate when and how to be intimate beyond basic canoodling, two men talk about what makes a wife willing to have sex with her husband, co-workers gossip how a physically disabled man pleases a woman, and more. Plus, an elementary-school-age kid gives Tom the finger and swears, and the two main male characters do lots of fighting and trash talking.
Families can talk about how the media sets up expectations about parenting roles. Do movies and TV shows gloss over the difficulties of parenting, or are they portrayed with clichés? Also, how is Chip's physical handicap handled in the movie? Do people have preconceived notions about those who are impaired? What are they, and how can they be dispelled? How is Braff's character in this movie different from many of the more-vulnerable characters he's played in the past? What do you think made him branch out?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: S. Jhoanna Robledo
Note to director Jesse Peretz: You should really think of changing the title of your comedy, THE EX. (Yes, we know it's already been changed once, from Fast Track.) Though Chip (played maniacally and brilliantly by Jason Bateman) figures prominently in the film as a guy who needles Tom Reilly (Zach Braff) because he's still in love with Tom's wife, Sofia (Amanda Peet), the title is misleading. It sets viewers up with the expectation of seeing a standoff between two romantic rivals, which it partly is. But it's not really mostly about that. Not quite.
A loudmouth -- or straight-shooter, depending on who's describing him -- who can't seem to hold down a job, Tom agrees to uproot Sofia (who stopped practicing law to become a stay-at-home mom) and their newborn from Manhattan to Ohio. There, Tom will join Sofia's father, Bob (Charles Grodin), in the ad business. Bob has a job all ready for Tom at the firm where he works, a so-hip-it's-painful agency called Sunburst (the employees pass around an imaginary "yes" ball, for starters). Bob assigns Chip, a go-getting creative director stuck in a wheelchair, to be Tom's mentor. But it's animosity -- not admiration -- that develops between the two.
Meanwhile, Tom and Sofia are locked in a post-birth haze, trying to find out who they are as parents, individually, and as a couple. The scenes in which they both struggle with their new roles -- she, joining an infant massage class in which everyone seems crunchier than she is, and he, presenting charts he has absolutely no idea how to explain -- are believable and surprisingly sympathetic. Still, it's unoriginal. Their struggles read like the cinematic version of the famous parenting book What to Expect: The First Year.
On the acting front, Bateman is in fine form, exhibiting the genius blend of deadpan delivery and outright zaniness that he perfected in his critically acclaimed sitcom Arrested Development. Braff does good work, too: Wacky and wry, he's as good as he gets in Scrubs. And Peet, as she did in the dearly departed TV drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, grounds the entire enterprise by being sweetly unaffected yet funny.
Grodin and Mia Farrow (as Sofia's mother, Amelia) are, unfortunately, cut from the same oddball-parents cloth already worn to better effect in Ben Stiller's Meet the Parents. Had The Ex's script allowed Grodin -- who's back in the big-screen game after more than a decade away -- to shine in his trademark kinetic-laconic style (see The Heartbreak Kid and Midnight Run), it would've served his talents better and made for a funnier movie. And Farrow simply acts dumb, which is a waste of an intelligent actress.
Though some of the movie's jokes and gags work -- a scene in which Sofia tells her hippie "frenemy" that her son is a "dips--t" is hilarious -- just as many simply don't: that "yes" ball, for instance, and another bit about a New Age-y co-worker who attempts to provide marriage counseling to Tom and Sofia. A side plot about a neighbor's boy is a nice distraction but calls out for more development, as do many of the inspired cameos from the likes of Amy Poehler, Donal Logue, Josh Charles, Amy Adams, and Paul Rudd.
Still, it could have been worse. The bummer is knowing that it could have also been a whole lot better.
Fans of this genre will likely also enjoy the aforementioned Meet the Parents and Flirting with Disaster.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentTom and Sofia come on to each other, with varying degrees of success. Kissing, groping, and much innuendo about one character's generously sized genitals. Some graphic description of sex acts and unusual positions. Allusions to past conquests and tips from a married man on how to get more action. Pornographic material shows up on a laptop. A man sits naked in a chair with a towel across his lap. |
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ViolenceFairly brutal fistfights between Tom and Chip, plus a basketball game among men in wheelchairs that's pretty intense. One character pushes another down a flight of stairs. |
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Language"F--k," "s--t" (used by both adults and a child), "dips--t," "slut." The words aren't used frequently, but pointedly. |
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Social BehaviorTom is a maverick who says it like it is, even when he's shoving his foot down his mouth and offending others. He also taunts and stalks a kid (who gives him the finger) and lies about an incident at work. Chip is a sociopath bent on destroying Tom at any cost, even if it requires lies, deceit, and outright violence. |
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CommercialismTom works at an ad agency, so some products are labeled (though for the most part, they're made up). |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSome drinking during toasts and similar events -- and, once, after a character loses his job, he drinks scotch during the day. |
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