Three women at different stages of life. Taken together, the film’s three narrative threads paint a picture of a relationship in all its phases, from the beginning to the end. The beginning, only seemingly a walk in the park. The stress and tests that beleaguer the life of a couple with small children. And the demoralisation at the end, when you’ve cut off the dead wood, but the scar still itches. “The Ex-Wife” packs the complexity of human relationships into clear scenes with intense acting. These are moments when the quiet drama is spread out before the audience in concentrated form, such as when Anna times how long her eternally young husband takes to prepare the baby’s bottle. Or the look on Vera’s face when she sees her daughter getting a hug from her ex-husband’s new girlfriend. It’s not exactly uplifting, but it’s extremely authentic and precisely observed.