When Mike Judge's Extract works, it fires on all cylinders and hits its jokes with such spot-on ferocity, the genius in the script is quite obvious. But there's another side to the comedy, filled with a jumble of story lines seemingly thrown together to distract from one, simple truth: there is no emotional "bottom" to the main plot.
Ostensibly a workplace comedy like Office Space, Extract takes place inside an extract plant, built and run by Jason Bateman's Joel, seemingly happily married to Suzie (Kristen Wiig). When life at work doesn't stress him out-an employee loses a testicle due to an accident-he has issues at home, namely a lack of sex. Enter both Cindy (Mila Kunis) and Dean (Ben Affleck), she a sultry temp worker and he Joel's friend. Through a combination of drugs and alcohol, Dean and Joel hatch a plan to make Suzie cheat with the poolboy (Dustin Milligan) so Joel feels no moral ambiguity for going after Cindy.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg Judge calls a story in Extract. With so much going on in a sub-90 minute film, it's impossible for any one storyline to get the attention it deserves. Take, for instance, the sexual dysfunction between Joel and Suzie. Anyone in a long term relationship knows partners tend to take each other for granted and forget the small things in life when work and the house take priority. But we want to see Bateman and company make the backstory funny in the way they make the obnoxious neighbor subplot funny. We don't get to see it since the movie is concerned with everything else going on around it. Just as we begin to get invested in one set of characters, the scene switches to something completely different, thereby losing all sense of momentum.
It's not that Judge doesn't have a plethora of good ideas, marvelous execution and game actors to work with. Much the opposite, actually. He has too much content for the constraints of the script. An entire film could be made solely inside the extract planet, detailing the personalities there. Beth Grant, as wise ass Mary, is such a wonderful presence onscreen even when she's engaged in blatant racial stereotyping against a Hispanic worker, she turns in an endearing and natural performance. In fact, each and every person in the film is authentic (until the finale, which we'll get to in a minute). These personalities-Rory, the metal playing forklift driver...Step, the slower guy with a heart of gold...even drugged out Dean-never come across as anything but 100% real. It's in the way they restrain themselves from hamming it up for the camera and in the way Judge writes the situations. In the open, two guitar store clerks fawn over Cindy and race to help her, fumbling over one another and ultimately looking like buffoons. Why? Because there's a pretty girl in front of them.
And it's precisely because there is a genuine concept and humor underneath all the plot threads Extract is so disappointing. In one scene late in the film, Suzie and Joel have argue over a poor choice they both had a hand in. Without blinking, Joel asks if she can still sit down after he hears how many times she's had sex in less than 2 weeks. Both actors are brilliant in the scene, never breaking character or betraying the seriousness of the situation, yet we can't help but find the entire thing beyond hilarious. The entirety of Extract plays this way, from the intended laughs to smaller situations from everyday life.
I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention the complete meltdown of the story in the last few minutes. In plot twists which reek of Judge realizing he's out of story, characters simply do things they shouldn't do, effectively wrapping each plot with a tidy little bow. The dim-witted story gymnastics exist for no appreciable reason, aside from the clock dwindling on the film's allotted running time. Why does the thief character develop a conscience? How does the hero determine who the thief is? Where do the lonely hearts figure out they're really meant for one another? I can't help but think chunks of film were removed which would help the audience logically move to the eventual finale.
Thanks mostly to a stellar cast who captures our attention from the first frame (including Kunis, who plays manipulative sex kitten better than anyone on screen, even if she is nothing more than a plot device) and Judge's unique ability to find the humor in seemingly mundane events without making them completely cartoonish, Extract somehow manages to overcome all its obstacles to be an amusing diversion. But don't compare it to Office Space. Nothing the writer/director does will ever be that painstakingly hilarious.