"EXTRACT" Review

I "grew up" in a factory, so the factory life shown in Extract is all too familiar to me. Sure it has stereotypes of those people, but for the most part, that's how it is. I was one of the workers, but my dad was in management, so I kind of saw both sides to the coin here. No matter which side you fall in, though, everyone can identify with Jason Bateman's character, Joel, as that ne'er-do-well type of guy that everyone seems to dump on.

Joel owns the extract company, starting it from the ground up himself. He leaves work every day and his biggest wish is to get home before his wife (Kristen Wiig) puts her sweats on, as after that, her shop is closed. Yet, no matter how much time it seems like he'll have that pesky neighbor keeps stopping by with idiotic things he feels are important. Everyone knows the type of neighbor he is, the type you see coming outside and you run the other direction.

An offer comes in from another corporation to buy out the company, and Joel gets ready to set up a meeting to discuss the offer. While he's working on that, one of the workers gets hurt in his testicles, damaging the chances of sellng the company. The worker is happy just to have a few days off, but an opportunistic con woman, Cindy (Mila Kunis) "accidentally" runs into him. She has big plans to get him to sue the extract factory, then take his money from him. But first she needs info from Joel, so she gets a temp job there.

Bored with his sweats-wife, Joel, starts to think about having an affair with Cindy, but he just can't do it with a clear consicence. His best friend (Ben Affleck) convinces him that if his wife would take the bait and cheat on him, then it would clear him to cheat right back. He sets up an elaborate plan to have a gigolo pose as a pool cleaner and put the moves on her.

By now you recognize where the movie is going. This is a guy that just can't win. And every time he makes a move, it's a bad move, and it all gets a lot worse for him. It has a great quirky, dark sense of humor and indie-type of feel to the movie. It definitely kept me smiling throughout, but some of that was just joy that I wasn't in Joel's shoes.