Super Zero

Reviewed - My Super Ex-Girlfriend: Uma Thurman, whose career is currently at least three-quarters of the way around the u-bend, wears a consistently bad-tempered look throughout the spasm of idiocy that is this film, writes Donald Clarke.

Uma Thurman, whose career is currently at least three-quarters of the way around the u-bend, wears a consistently bad-tempered look throughout the spasm of idiocy that is My Super Ex-Girlfriend. She is, perhaps, just fully immersed in her role as a sensitive superhero experiencing fits of furious dementia after being dumped by a nice young man.

One cannot, however, avoid the suspicion that Uma is constantly reliving the moment she first caught sight of her co-star on set. "Luke Wilson?" she may, after viewing the space where Owen of that clan was not, have muttered angrily to herself. "I must remember to read the blasted contract properly next time."

There are, however, better reasons for Thurman to be furious with this project. Ivan Reitman, director of Ghostbusters, here delivers one of the most aggressively misogynistic light comedies you could ever fear to see. Seeking, one assumes, to make observations about the unhinged way some women react to the termination of relationships, the picture portrays Thurman as a deranged harpy on only nodding terms with reality. Unfortunately for Wilson, her everyday fury is augmented by an ability to tear buildings from the earth and divert meteors from their paths. Before long, the whole of New York City is affected by her hazardous rages.

I don't know what some Betty or Mindy did to poor Don Payne, the writer of the wretched thing, but, unless she garrotted his mother or barbecued his cat, she surely cannot have deserved this.

Of course, if a movie is funny enough, we may find ourselves overlooking any amount of ideologically inappropriate turns. Sadly, My Super Ex-Girlfriend fails on every other count. The fantastic superhero plot sits uncomfortably with the industry-standard romcom ambience. Wilson seems distracted. Thurman, as we have seen, appears unhappy. And Eddie Izzard, as limited an actor as he is inspired as a comic, is, well, in the film. Anybody who has seen The Avengers or Velvet Goldmine will understand what bad news this is.