Miramax Films | USA | 91 minutes
WARNING: This review contains SPOILERS.
Extract comes from the comedic genius mind of Mike Judge; the man behind the hilarious Office Space and the overlooked Idiocracy. This may not be on the level of grandness that Office Space is, but it is in fact mildly superior to Idiocracy. Judge is an artist when it comes to conveying the average joe and the simple frustrations in life. This joyous factor is present and it makes for pure hilarity. A fantastic comedic cast is assembled along with sharp dialogue to assist them, which leads this to being one of the comedy highlights of the year.
The film revolves around Joel Reynold (Jason Bateman) who owns his own company that manufactures culinary extracts. While Joel seems to have everything from a good looking wife to owning his own company, he’s miserable. His wife doesn’t put out which leads to most of his problems. The only thing that keeps him sane is taking to his druggy best friend Dean (Ben Affleck), who only supplies with horrible advice. After contemplating the idea of selling his company things may soon start to get better for himself, but things only get worse. When one of his dimwitted employees named Step loses one of his testicles in a factory accident a domino effect takes place. Joel soon finds himself battling the temptation of cheating on his wife with the new con-artist employee Cindy (Mila Kunis), dealing with a lawsuit, and even having to deal with a mindless gigolo.
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The story is fairly simplistic and nothing highly original, but its also not completely contrived nor predictable. The set up is somewhat similar to Office Space, Joel is a generally unhappy man except he actually enjoys his job. His life seems to be steadily faltering into despair and these are the most entertaining moments. He continues to do his best and even takes advice from his best friend, and yet nothing goes right. All he does is make a horrible decisions that lead to all his problems. Joel’s relationship with his wife is also one of the comedic highlight. At first, Judge continues to imply that his wife is cheating on him but he never gives too much which causes a sense of disbelief. When Joel hires a gigolo to sway his wife into bed so he can have a guilt free cheat with the Cindy, Judge never fully shows her cheating. This leads to all the small hints such as the gigolo constantly pulling out of Joel’s neighborhood, these minor moments give off hints that he is sleeping with the wrong woman; hilarious moments that take away predictability.
A major cliche that was actually avoided was creating Cindy into the felon with a heart of gold. She does have a slight redemption in the end, but its not as if she quits her life of crime. This is also similar to the stoner buddy Dean. He’s not a one-note joke character. While he is continually getting high he actually adds to the story and isn’t the typical stoner parody. The interplay between Dean and Joel also equals pure hilarity, they’re actually believable as friends despite their different personas. Unfortunately, the film ends on a low note with the conclusion. Joel of course does overcome his problems in the end. This is the most cliched part of the story. It’s not a satisfying ending and the resolution feels rushed and unearned.
Bateman is consistently hilarious and likable throughout the film. He makes a character we’ve seen before, an average Joe in an unhappy marriage, involving. His actions are of course in a gray area and he makes some of the worst possible decisions, but he still remains sympathetic. Mila Kunis ends up delivering a commendable performance despite lacking much screen time as she pops in and out of the story. As stated earlier, she isn’t the criminal with a heart of gold and Kunis makes this believable. She doesn’t contain a broad arc, but in the end she succeeds due to her uncanny likability. Similar to Clifton Collins Jr. and David Koechner, they take cliche characters on paper and make them work.
Any of fan of Mike Judge will most likely not be disappointed and nor should they be. There are a few problems such as the disappointing ending, but this still remains a very enjoyable film. Due to the cast, a few of the non-predictable moments, and the notable characters Extract succeeds. This is a nice welcome back for Judge.