The Ex

A married couple (Zach Braff, Amanda Peet) move with their new baby to Ohio, where he has a job offer from her father (Charles Grodin), and hubby ends up working under his wife’s ex-boyfriend (Jason Bateman), a passive-aggressive in a wheelchair—and also a phony, though only hubby seems to know it. Written by David Guion and Michael Handelman and directed by Jesse Peretz, the movie gets off to a sprightly start thanks to Braff’s goofy charm and Peet’s levelheaded likeability. That (plus Bateman’s witty deadpan smarm) carries pretty far, but things get more aggravating and contrived by the minute, with a forced, abruptly happy ending that seems to happen only because everyone decided it was time to bring the shenanigans to a close. Mia Farrow, Amy Poehler and Donal Logue are left idling in support.