‘Ex-Husbands’ Review: Griffin Dunne’s Melancholy Party Crasher
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‘Ex-Husbands’ Review: Griffin Dunne’s Melancholy Party Crasher
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Kyle Smith
Feb. 20, 2025 12:01 pm ET
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“There’s nothing more excruciating than a living parent,” notes a young adult in “Ex-Husbands,” an acutely observant drama about the frictions of marriage and the frustrations of family dynamics. The parent in question, a dentist named Peter who is affectingly played by Griffin Dunne, is loving, but cringey. He always means well, but at times he’s impossible.
Written and directed by Noah Pritzker, the film’s premise sounds like an ’80s sex comedy: Nick (James Norton), a New York groom-to-be, sends up the bro signal to gather his buds for a beachy bachelor party in Tulum, Mexico—only to discover with appropriate horror that his dad, Peter, has booked a nonrefundable vacation at the same spot. In my imaginary ’80s version, Alan Arkin or George Segal would have been the papa, constantly interrupting the younger men’s sexual high jinks.
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In writer-director Noah Pritzker’s observant drama, a father unexpectedly shows up at his son’s bachelor party in Mexico.
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Griffin Dunne finds truth in low-key father-sons dramedy Ex-Husbands
No small amount of words have been written recently unpacking the suboptimal state of the world, and its connection to the modern crisis of male identity. Over the last several decades, many men have had to reexamine things they once felt were settled truths. But there aren’t a lot of American films that, in a substantive and positive-minded way, try to examine masculine ennui and emotional drift in the modern world, especially in intergenerational fashion. Enter writer-director Noah Pritzker’s Ex-Husbands, a bittersweet father-and-sons dramedy which feels oddly relevant while also giving off a dated throwback vibe. What may strike some as lightweight will connect with more attuned viewers as a compassionately observed collection of just-so moments—a worthwhile cinematic novella.
Ex-Husbands centers on New York dentist Peter Pearce (Griffin Dunne), who’s putting off finalizing divorce paperwork from his wife of 35 years, Maria (Rosanna Arquette), not so much out of a misguided notion they might reconcile but more to maintain a nostalgic grip on the life they shared. With his own father Simon (Richard Benjamin), himself a late-in-life divorcee, gripped by dementia, Peter decides it’s time to indulge a bit of escapism, in the form of a getaway trip to Tulum, Mexico.
The rub is that, unremembered by Peter (probably), his sons Nick (James Norton) and Mickey (Miles Heizer) are also headed to Tulum the same weekend, for the former’s bachelor party. Unable to cancel, Peter forges ahead, promising he won’t bother the boys. Once there, the brothers take pity and invite him over for dinner, while Peter tries to still keep a respectful distance. Eventually, Nick lets slip that his relationship is on the rocks, leaving Mickey in the awkward position of trying to manage the implosion of both his father and brother’s romances.
What might sound, on the surface, like the premise for a wacky comedy instead grounds itself in real life; no hijinks ensue in Ex-Husbands. In fact, the few scenes that share DNA with a bawdier version of the same set-up (like a sex-themed gag gift from a groomsman-to-be) play out to muted reactions, as if the movie is judging its lower-common-denominator iterations.
Gratifyingly, Ex-Husbands instead digs down into its genuine relationship dynamics, and its appeal is its lived-in performances. Dunne has always had a gifted touch with conveying the inner angst of urban, well-heeled, usually Northeastern-bred men in crisis, with many of his roles either leaning heartily into this persona or playing off of it. Here it’s the former; he imbues Peter with a winsome weariness.
As Nick, Norton delivers just the right blend of unmoored detachment without ever tipping over into moroseness. As gay younger brother Mickey, meanwhile, Heizer captures a low-key but ever-present instinct to please. Together, the trio’s dynamic—loving, but also emotionally fenced off—exudes a palpable believability. The rest of the cast is equally fantastic, obviously well-dialed into the movie’s tone and vision.
Pritzker has one previous feature credit as a director, 2015’s Quitters, which also unpacked familial tumult—albeit chiefly from the perspective of a teenager seeking a stability not afforded him at home.
Here, Pritzker expands his canvas. He also cannily sets expectations early, having Nick describe watching an experimental film and the dawning realization of it being driven by vibes more than plot, and equating that with his own current station in life. It’s a description which works on a character level (Nick is 35, stuck in a professional rut, and diagnosed with “double depression”), but also a nod to the audience that Ex-Husbands itself is more invested in small moments of observation and reflection than narrative dynamism.
Among these bits and beats: Peter’s chance encounter with a former patient (John Ventimiglia), which affirms a single life he doesn’t want. There’s a great scene in which Peter bonds with Otto (Nate Mann), a young man in town to be wed, sharing an anecdote from his wild youth. Later, it makes total sense that (a drunken) Otto would insist Peter take him sightseeing at the local ruins—only to no-show in the morning, leaving Peter to spend time with the bride-to-be’s godmother, Eileen (Eisa Davis). Illuminating, too, is a brief sequence in which Nick’s friends privately share thoughts on his break-up.
Individually and collectively, these scenes wander afield from the premise the film’s set-up might seemingly augur. Yet they not only enrich the movie as a whole, but smartly color and shade our view of how these men view the world, and how they are seen by others.
Not every moment lands. Nick’s blurted disclosure of his break-up to his father comes at an unconvincing moment, and a hook-up for Mickey comes across as contrived, even if its payoff later gives him a moment of earned reflection. But Pritzker has a nice touch with conversational patter that can be amusing without feeling forced (“Not taking meds in the 21st century feels like not using an iPhone just to try to prove a point,” opines one character). When he takes the movie back stateside for the last 20-plus minutes, it’s momentarily surprising, like we’re leaving Tulum with unfinished business. But it’s a smart play, pushing the characters back into lives on which they’d momentarily pressed pause.
If the movie’s budgetary constraints seem to feed a lack of imagination in its visual vocabulary, its basic stagings at least communicate a certain assurance. Avoiding manipulative close-ups, Nick’s confession to Mickey about his relationship ending unfolds in the half-dark, with a nice mix of resignation and self-awareness. A sequence in which Nick listens on voicemail to a draft letter to friends and family explaining the wedding’s cancellation makes evocative, subtle use of time-lapse framing, something that can easily come off as gimmicky in less skilled hands.
Ex-Husbands understands that uncertainty, rather than knowledge, ultimately drives our lives, both animating and connecting us. Is it “funny,” really? No. Is it searingly dramatic in a way that pulls at your heartstrings? No. And yet it possesses an undeniable authenticity, wrapping its arms around a truth most movies avoid: there’s no such thing as absolute certainty in life.
Director: Noah Pritzker
Writer: Noah Pritzker
Starring: Griffin Dunne, Rosanna Arquette, Richard Benjamin, Miles Heizer, James Norton
Release Date: February 21, 2025
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