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One of my favorite film scenes comes in M. Night Shyamalan's film Unbreakable, when Samuel L. Jackson—playing an eccentric collector of comic books—explains to our unwitting hero, Bruce Willis, the importance of the superhero mythology as a mirror for the human condition. According to ol' Sam, there's more to a comic book than just grown men wearing tights and punching each others' lights out; superhero stories are underappreciated art forms, tall tales in which the truth is exaggerated but still reflected in a powerful way. His theory seems quite credible—indeed, one need look no further for proof than to Pixar's blockbuster hit The Incredibles, a movie in which superpowers come to represent the different gifts of each character, turning a super-parody into a super-insightful story about families and the different roles that each family member plays.
My Super Ex-Girlfriend is the latest film to take the superhero myth and transport it into mundane, everyday life—and, when compared to a movie like The Incredibles, it might seem like something of a missed opportunity, as it doesn't quite milk its rich material for insights into the human condition. In other words, the tropes and trappings of a superhero story are here, but they never become symbolic or representative of anything particularly profound. Rather, they're here just to fuel the film's comedy and romance. And that's just fine, for while it may not be anything especially thought-provoking, Super Ex happens to be one of those extremely rare romantic comedies that is, in fact, both romantic and comedic—not to mention surprising and altogether likeable.
If you've seen the trailers—heck, even if you just know the film's title—you can surmise the basic plot. A regular Joe, Matt Saunders (Luke Wilson) meets a woman who's secretly a superhero, Jenny Johnson, a.k.a. G-Girl (Uma Thurman). The two of them go out a few times, and then Matt, sensing that it isn't going to work out, tries as gently as he can to break up with her. Trouble is, Jenny is, in Matt's words, "an emotional basket case"—she's very needy, very clingy, and, much to Matt's chagrin, very superpower-ful. Oh, and she's a little angry at him.
What the trailers don't show you, though, is that the movie spends a surprising amount of time focusing on their initial meeting and courtship—the breakup doesn't come until close to an hour into the film—and it works surprisingly well. Wilson and Thurman are both fine comedic actors, and they've both got extremely likable onscreen personas. Best of all, they've got tremendous chemistry together. We root for their relationship to work out, even though we know that, unless the title is one monster of a misnomer, things can only end badly.
When things finally do come to a close, the plot becomes a bit more complicated. Jenny doesn't take the breakup well at all. She hurls Matt's car into orbit around the globe. She uses her super-speed to strip all his clothes off him in the middle of a business meeting. She throws a shark through his window. All in all, it's not an amicable split. As for Matt, he begins seeing a co-worker who he has long had a crush on, Hannah (Anna Farris). Plus, he's visited by G-Girl's arch-nemesis, Professor Bedlam (British comedian Eddie Izzard), who has a seemingly foolproof plan to rob G-Girl of her powers.
The film walks a very fine line—those who think superhero motifs are wicked-cool should find plenty of clever twists on the genre here, while those who think superhero stories are just stupid will find that the movie doesn't take itself too seriously. Even more impressive, director Ivan Reitman keeps things moving along efficiently, but takes the time to develop the two lead characters, to allow their chemistry to blossom, and to make sure that comedy and romance both play into the story. Reitman is best known for directing such blockbuster comedies as the genre-bending Ghostbusters flicks, and other early Bill Murray vehicles like Meatballs and Stripes; thankfully, Super Ex is at least as smart as those movies, a comedy that gives us love and laughter just for the sake of love and laughter. In other words, it's something of a comeback after some of the director's recent flops, like Evolution and Six Days, Seven Nights.
Mostly, though, it's the cast that sells this thing. Luke Wilson mostly plays it straight, and he proves to be just as charming and lovably laid back as brother Owen; he's a natural as a leading man. Uma Thurman has been doing more and more comedic work in recent years, and it suits her well; here she takes a neurotic and controlling character and actually makes her easy to like. Wanda Sykes and Eddie Izzard get mixed results in supporting roles; Sykes is annoying, but Izzard is note-perfect, leaving a strong impression despite having little screen time. Likewise, Rainn Wilson alternates between funny and repugnant as Matt's sex-crazed guy friend. And Anna Faris is beautiful and intelligent as Matt's friend/crush Hannah; she deserves a chance to play the leading lady herself.
The movie's ending—like the rest of the film—somehow pulls off the unusual feat of being surprising without being particularly unconventional; it doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does manage to come across as fresh rather than predictable, and it'll please moviegoers of both genders. That's almost unheard of with this particular genre, meaning that, even if it falls slightly short of super, Ex-Girlfriend is a film that's well worth having around.
Talk About It
Discussion starters- What kind of attitude does the film take toward dating and relationships? Toward sex? Toward breaking up?
- Do you think Matt treats Jenny appropriately? Why or why not?
- Does Jenny treat Matt appropriately—especially after the break-up? Why or why not?
- What do we learn about Jenny and Dr. Bedlam through the story of how Jenny got her superpowers, and how she subsequently treated him?
The Family Corner
For parents to considerMy Super Ex-Girlfriend is rated PG-13 for sexual content, crude humor, language, and brief nudity. The most problematic element of the film is the very casual view it takes toward sex. The sexual content and crude humor mostly pertain to a couple of non-explicit scenes in which sleeping with a superhero turns out to be more than Matt bargained for—i.e., his bed is broken, etc. Violence is all very cartoony and non-graphic, and the brief nudity is a brief scene of rear male nudity.
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What Other Critics Are Saying
compiled by Jeffrey Overstreetfrom Film Forum, 07/27/06
First, Matt breaks up with his girlfriend. Then, Jenny decides to break apart Matt's whole life. Matt knows she's a strong-willed woman. He just doesn't know how strong. And when he starts romancing his co-worker Hannah, Jenny focuses all her powers—which turn out to be super-powers—to wreak havoc.
Break-ups are always messy. But this one is so unpleasant that critics are hoping audiences dump My Super Ex-Girlfriend and move on to other affairs.
Harry Forbes (Catholic News Service) says, "Ivan Reitman directs with the requisite light touch, the colorful film looks good, and the leads are quite engaging (Thurman and Wilson being likable and accomplished farceurs), but too much of Don Payne's dialogue is witless, and many of the gags are needlessly vulgar, with the situations less genuinely funny than they could have been."
Adam R. Holz (Plugged In) says, "If only Reitman (and the film's screenwriters) could have resisted the temptation to add so much sexual content, from the characters' proclivity for jumping in bed together to nonstop innuendo. Indeed, the sheer volume of sexual content in this film, while not R-rated, is still overwhelming."
Mainstream critics are super-disappointed.
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