Verdict
Summary
Taking Fatal Attraction and Play Misty For Me to the next level, The Ex features one of the most outrageously insane antagonists ever committed to film in an erotic thriller, thanks to Yancy Butler’s cackling and sexually explosive performance. From the first time we see her, she has a deranged gleam in her eye, and the best reason to see this movie is because of her, but the film’s script is weak and never quite digs into the how’s and why’s of her behavior, leaving too much space in between her nuttiness.
Plot:
A psychotic ex-wife of an architect plots to ruin his new life.
Review:
David Kenyon (Nick Mancuso) has a thriving career as an architect and a loving relationship with his wife Molly (Suzy Amis) and his young son Michael (Hamish Tildesley) who is already showing signs of having anger issues at school. He trusts Molly to take Michael to a child psychologist, and when an attractive woman named Diedre (Yancy Butler from Hard Target and Drop Zone) shows up at precisely the right moment at the gym to befriend Molly, Molly confides in her about her son (because she says she’s a psychologist). We already know that Diedre is not who she presents herself to be because she’s already conveniently shown up at David’s workplace; she’s his deranged ex-wife! She has clingy, psychotic vibes right from the start, and as it turns out, she’s just been released (possibly escaped and on the run) from a mental institution because of an event that happened more than five years ago when she was still married to David. There was a drowning of a woman (Diedre murdered her, we see in flashbacks) who showed David some attention, and David nearly killed Diedre in retaliation. Luckily, David wasn’t the one who ended up incarcerated because Diedre is a master manipulator and liar (and a clever murderer too), and now that she’s on the loose, she’s planned a careful and calculated system to completely ruin David’s new and happy life. First, she’s going to corrupt his son Michael (because Molly “hires” her to have sessions with him), and then she’s going to make Molly think that David has attacked and raped her and beaten her to within an inch of her life (she pays a sadomasochist to beat the crap out of her in a seedy club), and then when cops and lawyers become involved, it clearly seems that David is a sexual deviant psycho out to kill his ex-wife, but, of course, it’s Diedre who’s incredibly dangerous and ready to die just for the thrill of burning his life to cinders.
Taking Fatal Attraction and Play Misty For Me to the next level, The Ex features one of the most outrageously insane antagonists ever committed to film in an erotic thriller, thanks to Yancy Butler’s cackling and sexually explosive performance. From the first time we see her, she has a deranged gleam in her eye, and the best reason to see this movie is because of her, but the film’s script is weak and never quite digs into the how’s and why’s of her behavior, leaving too much space in between her nuttiness. She kills people indiscriminately, and in one moment nearly throws a child into a ferry ship’s churning paddle wheels! Her character’s plan is inherently flawed and too conveniently played out and executed, but I didn’t care because the movie is pretty entertaining, while not necessarily sexy, even with Butler’s unhinged, (gleefully) sadomasochistic physical performance. It also marks her only nude scenes in a movie, so there’s that. Mark L. Lester (Commando, Showdown in Little Tokyo) did a solid job with this simplistic material. Fans of erotic thrillers should enjoy it more than others.
Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray edition of The Ex looks great in a new HD master, and the disc comes with new video interviews with Butler and Mancuso, plus the trailer.
