Tom Reilly (Scrubs’s Zach Braff) and Sofia Kowalski (Amanda Peet) are a Manhattan couple expecting their first child. Hoping to rely on Tom’s impending promotion, Sofia quits her high-flying job to become a stay-at-home mom. All would have been well if Tom didn’t get fired on the day of his promotion right before Sofia goes into labour. Wanting to make up for his underachieving ways, Tom decides to take up his father-in-law’s offer to work at his quirky advertising firm back in Ohio.

What awaits the couple in Ohio though, ain’t all fairy dust and unicorns. Much to his chagrin, Tom soon finds his parent-in-laws smothering his life and undermining his achievements (or the lack of) at every turn. To make matters worse, he finds himself working under Sofia’s wheelchair-bound fling from high school, Chip Sanders (Jason Bateman), who’s bent on winning Sofia back and generally making Tom look bad. As all predictable storylines go, only Tom sees Chip for the devious saboteur that he is.

Tom’s desperate attempts to outdo Chip and impress his wife and the in-laws trigger a chain of laugh out loud slapstick events that eventually create more friction between the couple.

For the most part, the movie’s only flaw is that it’s constantly undermined by its unfortunate weak plot and total predictability. For that of course, we have budding screenwriters, David Guion and Michael Handelman, to thank. We appreciate you pulling the age-old Hollywood copy and paste trick –

taking a box-office successful formula, changing the names of the main characters and adding a few redundant details to their already disorganised lives, giving the audience no credit whatsoever and hoping no one will be able to tell the difference. Really guys, thank you.

As if that’s not bad enough, the producers decide to sign on an overly-talented cast to further emphasize how bad the script is. Braff, Peet and Bateman, who are familiar faces known for their witty and clever roles have almost no good material to work with resulting in their highly anticipated appearances panning out to be a wee bit disappointing; another thing to thank the dynamic partnership of Guion and Handelman for.

All that aside, the movie, which was originally titled Fast Track, isn’tall that bad. Its saving grace lies too, with its cast who lend likeability to the characters and star power to the film. Braff, Peet and Bateman impart an affable quality to their characters; Braff with his usual goofiness, Peet with her girlish charms and Bateman with his all too familiar straight-faced humour.

But perhaps the true heavyweights, as with the case in Meet the Fockers, are the veterans who play the protagonist’s in-laws. Charles Grodin and Mia Farrow play Bob and Amelia Kowalski, the suburban parents of Sofia, whose critical demeanours are hidden behind Stepford smiles. Farrow is best known for the cult horror classic,Rosemary’s Baby. Grodin, whose name may not ring a bell, played the soft-hearted disapproving father in the 90’s family film favourite, Beethoven.

Ultimately, The Ex turns out to be quite okay with its random silliness and over-used but ever so funny gag lines such as the reference to Mr. Miyagi’s (The Karate Kid) famous teachings of “wax on and wax off”. It is recommended to all who don’t really mind the usual no-brainer cookie cutter story plot and desperately need a laugh. But I’m guessing even those who don’t fall into this category will still go catch the film. It’s just hard to resist all that star power.

3 out of 5 stars

Movie Details:

Opens: July 5

Running Time: 90 minutes

Cast: Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Jason Bateman, Charles Grodin and Mia Farrow

Director: Jesse Peretz