You’ll want to be in market for these ‘Ex-Husbands’
Pity the lovelorn men of the family Pearce, none of whom has had enduring success with amour. Yet, patriarch Peter (Griffin Dunne) is almost martyr-like in his belief that every butt has a seat. Sure, his wife of 35 years, Maria (Rosanna Arquette), is pressuring him to sign the divorce papers, but he remains hopeful that an 11th-hour reconciliation is in the cards. This is despite Maria’s constant reminders that breaking up isn’t an activity shared by two.
Peter’s eldest son, Nick (James Norton), needs no reminding of that fact, as he and his soon-to-be ex-fiancee, Thea (Rachel Zeiger-Haag), are calling it quits before they get started. Then there’s Peter’s Pops, Simon (Richard Benjamin). He’s ready to declare his independence and re-enter the dating pool at the spry young age of 87. And Peter’s other son, Mickey (Miles Heizer), has zero female prospects. Sure, he just exited the closet, but he has no male ones, either.
Welcome to the world of “Ex-Husbands,” writer-director Noah Pritzker’s somewhat cynical take on modern romance, a state of play in which relationships are as soiled and disposable as a baby’s diapers. That’s assuming, of course, there are any infants left to change, seeing as how birth rates in the United States are plummeting. Is happily ever after even a thing anymore, as we become less and less monogamous? Peter would like to know.
The struggling dentist longs for a return to the days of mating for life, but all he sees is a tsunami of emotional drift and dwindling connections. Not to mention a vast shakeup in gender roles. Like a lot of us baby boomers, he’s struggling to make sense of it all. But since when has love made sense?
This is the stage Pritzker sets for a scenario in which Peter and his two sons are about to get a crash course in what it means to be a man in the 21st century. The setting for this schooling could not be more picturesque than the white, sandy beaches of Mexico, where Peter, Nick and Mickey are headed for an eventful weekend in which secrets are revealed and Peter will pine for yet another unavailable woman.
The occasion is Nick’s bachelor party. Peter wasn’t invited, but because of a set of remarkable coincidences, Nick, Mickey and their pals just so happen to be headed to the same city, Tulum, on the same flight as Peter. What are the odds? It won’t be the last glaring contrivance Pritzker introduces, but he has to find some way for Pete and his boys to unexpectedly bond while dealing with their individual tragedies.
They’re a long way from their New York homes, which helps level the playing field seeing as they’re all strangers in a strange land. But no one seems in the mood for a fiesta. Melancholy rules – as do SSRI drugs – and not even the beautiful babes on the beach can bring a smile, although Peter finds a brief respite with a sexy Standford professor in Elsa Davis’ Eileen Link. Might she be Peter’s missing Link?
Their fling sings for as long as it lasts. But this isn’t that type of love story. No, deep down, “Ex-Husbands,” is about a father’s love of his children and vice versa. Back home, everything is perfunctory and transactional. Here, they’re just fellow bros, all in search of whatever it is that’s the root cause of their terminal ennui. Are they each other’s cure?
Pritzker would like to think so. And he makes a convincing argument that no romance can match the sanctity and comfort of the love between fathers and sons. The Pearces are one screwed-up bunch, but Pritzker intends for us to be envious of their unspoken love for each other. He succeeds. Despite witnessing all the pain and suffering they endure, you’d switch places with any one of them in a second.
Pritzker hints at his objective early on via a flashback to six years earlier, as Maria, Peter and his parents sit together in a movie theater awaiting the start of Hirokazu Kooreda’s marvelous “After the Storm,” a similar tale of a divorced dad desperate for things to return to the way they were before the split. Here, as there, the lonely dad suffers from numerous blind spots, not to mention a lack of self-awareness. But also a willingness to learn and understand.
Like Hiroshi Abe in “After the Storm,” Dunne deftly creates a lovable jerk you cannot help being drawn to, despite his glaring faults. We don’t see enough of Dunne, who’s spent much of his career as a director. Here, he reminds us of what a terrific actor he can be, perhaps summoning his best work since he last teamed with Arquette in Martin Scorsese’s overlooked gem, “After Hours.”
They’re not quite Hanks and Ryan or Tracy and Hepburn, but Dunne and Arquette do cast a mystical spell. As a couple, even one on the rocks, they are dynamic. But the chemistry is even stronger between Dunne and Norton and Heizer. By the time we reach the film’s touching finale, you’re left craving even more of them and their ability to render their forlorn characters endearing. More than their failures at love and underachievements in life, these Pearces possess what’s essential to flourish – each other.
Movie review
Ex-Husbands
Rated: Not rated
Cast: Griffin Dunne, Richard Benjamin, Rosanna Arquette, James Norton and Miles Heizer
Director: Noah Pritzker
Writer: Noah Pritzker
Runtime: 99 minutes
Where: In theaters (limited), expands Feb. 28
Grade: B
