Review of The Ex

The Ex (1996)
That face, that voice... our little Yancy
21 April 2006
She may not be a great actress, but Yancy Butler has an unmistakable name, face and voice. Her striking eyes and brows make me think she'd be perfect as the lead in a remake of 'The Wasp Woman.' And that throaty gurgle of a voice is positively un-natural. It's unfortunate that she's had alcohol issues that threw her out of the acting game for a while. But that does make me think how she's appeared so uncomfortable on-camera in most of her roles over the years... even this one. Perhaps it's just this film's sledgehammer of a script making her uneasy here, even as a villain. It's obvious that this thing is riding the same track trodded down previously by 'Fatal Attraction' (although 'Attraction' itself is a variation on an even older film: Clint Eastwood's 'Play Misty For Me'). Yancy gets the juicy role of the crazed ex-wife who terrorizes ex-hubby Mancuso and his second wife Amis. It all leads to an achingly predictable conclusion. Sure, you don't know what will do ol' Yance in, but you know it's coming (and you can figure it won't involve a tub since that would be way too close to 'Fatal Attraction'-- although this film does rely on tubs for Yancy's killing spree). I agree with a fellow commentator who was annoyed with the child actor: indeed, the young boy is truly terrible. They could have used a dog in place of the kid and gotten a better performance. The only interesting facet was having Mancuso be into rough sex. From that, I think a more startling conclusion would have been having Mancuso and Yancy re-uniting---because they're obsessed with each other and play this sick game of rough love that extends to even killing Yancy's sister and Mancuso's new wife. As it is, this is just a b-grade thriller/time-killer.
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