THE EX — ** — Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Jason Bateman; rated PG-13 (vulgarity, profanity, violence, brief sex, brief drugs).

One of the opening scenes in "The Ex" is a food fight, which is an apt metaphor for this comedy: It's a bit of a mess and pretty wasteful.

The film's penchant for embarrassment humor, crudities and a certain level of nastiness also makes it akin to one of those all-too-familiar Ben Stiller vehicles. Except that here, it's the infinitely more likable Zach Braff, who stars as Tom Reilly, an irresponsible New Yorker.

Tom has just lost his job as a chef at a Manhattan restaurant, and it couldn't come at a worse time. He and his wife, Sofia, (Amanda Peet) have just had a baby, and they're already scraping to make ends meet. So he decides to finally take up his father-in-law (Charles Grodin) on a job offer. Which means moving out to Ohio, where Tom will join a rather unorthodox advertising agency.

Tom is supposed to train under the firm's paraplegic superstar, Chip Sanders (Jason Bateman), but instead the two men take an instant dislike to each other. In fact, Tom becomes convinced that Chip is trying to undermine him at work and that he's out to win back his high school sweetheart, Sofia.

There are a lot of talented people here. In addition to Braff, Peet, Bateman and Grodin, the film's supporting cast boasts Mia Farrow and comic actors Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, Donal Logue, Paul Rudd and Romany Malco.

But their performances are in service to a script (courtesy of two novice screenwriters) that's more obsessed with low-brow crudities and dumb slapstick than it is with naturally evolving character humor. And music-video director Jesse Peretz tends to linger after the jokes have played out.

"The Ex" is rated PG-13 for crude sexual humor and references, occasional strong profanity (including one use of the so-called "R-rated" curse word), a couple of violent scenes (brawling and vehicular mayhem, mostly done for laughs), brief sexual contact, and brief drug content (a few references as well as anesthetics). Running time: 89 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com