By Rob. Walton

After they have a baby, young Manhattanites Tom and Sofia (Scrubs' Zach Braff and Studio 60's Amanda Peet) relocate to her Ohio hometown where they can more easily make ends meet. Tom, against his better judgment, goes to work with his father-in-law (Charles Grodin) at a touchy-feely ad agency, the sort of place that encourages team-building exercises like throwing an imaginary ball to one another around the conference table. He has a hard time fitting in, thanks in large part to the efforts of his new boss, Chip (Arrested Development's Jason Bateman), a cheerleader who was Sofia's high school boyfriend. The conniving passive-aggressive Chip, who's been confined to a wheelchair since age 14, easily casts Tom as a paranoid bully to his wife and coworkers, and expertly plays the victim for all it's worth, jeopardizing Tom's job and marriage.

Like Ben Stiller's Greg Focker in Meet the Parents, Tom is a hapless outsider -- the only sane man in an insane situation. Considering the movie's premise, not to mention the on-screen sparring of Bateman and Braff -- both brilliant physical and verbal comics -- The Ex should be a laugh riot, but, under the direction of Jesse Peretz (The Chateau) it's completely out of sync. We can see the recycled jokes coming a mile away, and the flat bedroom banter that wants to riff on old Woody Allen falls with a deafening thud. Bateman's patented, un-P.C., evil-genius shtick notwithstanding, The Ex just doesn't work out.