"Extract" is a movie I recently saw on DVD. It follows the story of a small business owner, Joel (Jason Bateman). His business manufactures food extract. He wants to sell his business to General Mills, which has shown interest. One of the reasons that he wants out is because he has to deal with his factory employees, who aren’t the brightest people on the block. He also wants more personal time. He and his wife, Suzie (Kristen Wiig) seldom have sex – once every three months he tells his friend, Dean (Ben Affleck). A beautiful temp worker, Cindy (Mila Kunis), shows up. From earlier scenes, we know she’s a con-artist. An accident happened in the factory and she is there to gather some intelligence and see if she can make any money off of the settlement. Cindy is stunning (obviously, since the actress is Mila Kunis) and Joel feels the need to have an affair. Well, he feels he can only have an affair with Cindy, if his wife cheats on him. Dean suggests hiring a gigolo. Joel is an honorable man and can’t do this, but his friend gets him to take some drugs and in an induced state he agrees to hire the gigolo. Oops. He finds out that his wife goes for the affair. And well, he actually gets seduced towards the end of the movie by Cindy.
It all ends happily. One assumes Cindy ends her con-artist ways. Joel decides not to see to General Mills. Joel and Suzie reconcile.
I saw this movie after seeing “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.” For some reason, I found this part of the movie topical: Joel goes for the cute bad girl while Suzie goes for the dumb fun guy.
I don’t think this is a movie classic, but I did enjoy it. I think the whole frustration regarding managing/running a small factory was told in a classic fashion.
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