"The Ex" is one of those movies that you expect to be a little-known comedy gem. Its cast, including Amanada Peet, Zach Braff and Jason Bateman, are all very talented. But there's good reason it was a straight-to-DVD release. It's not funny.
Its biggest problem is with characterization. Zach Braff plays the everyman, which is good casting because Braff plays the everyman with a comedic touch quite well. So well, in fact, that we connect to him. He wants to treat his wife well, work hard, and impress his in-laws. We want him to succeed just as much as he does. But then we start finding out that his wife (Amanda Peet) has no likable qualities and continues to force his life into hell, his in-laws of course are completely stubborn, and his co-worker (Jason Bateman) is a competitive back-stabbing ex-boyfriend of his wife. Obviously things don't go well for our hero, and they don't go well for the entire course of the movie.
For this to work as a comedy, we need to understand our hero's connection to his wife, we need to see that there's a way in to connect with his in-laws, and we need to know that other characters see what the ex is really like, but the writers didn't give us any of that. Instead we have to sit there while our hero, who is essentially us, is being tortured for no good reason and with no way out. I certainly wasn't laughing.
Its biggest problem is with characterization. Zach Braff plays the everyman, which is good casting because Braff plays the everyman with a comedic touch quite well. So well, in fact, that we connect to him. He wants to treat his wife well, work hard, and impress his in-laws. We want him to succeed just as much as he does. But then we start finding out that his wife (Amanda Peet) has no likable qualities and continues to force his life into hell, his in-laws of course are completely stubborn, and his co-worker (Jason Bateman) is a competitive back-stabbing ex-boyfriend of his wife. Obviously things don't go well for our hero, and they don't go well for the entire course of the movie.
For this to work as a comedy, we need to understand our hero's connection to his wife, we need to see that there's a way in to connect with his in-laws, and we need to know that other characters see what the ex is really like, but the writers didn't give us any of that. Instead we have to sit there while our hero, who is essentially us, is being tortured for no good reason and with no way out. I certainly wasn't laughing.