Day: December 30, 2009

…yet lest I seem less than enthusiastic, let me be clear: Mike Judge’s Extract may be a little too this or a little too little of that, but I enjoyed the film as much as any comedy this year. Judge has a masterly sense of structure–the film is a well-oiled (if a little over-determined) farce machine, but played with the kind of subtle dialogue-driven character focus for which he doesn’t often get enough credit. Jason Bateman plays the newly-middle-aged owner of a chemical-flavoring company, finding himself at a loss in his relationship with wife Kristen Wiig and unexcited by his job. Mila Kunis’ temp (who we know to be a con artist) catches his eye, but he feels too guilty to do more than dream, until his bartender friend Dean (a shaggy, invested Ben Affleck) gives him a horse tranquilizer and a plan: get a gigolo to seduce your wife, then you can cheat with guiltfree abandon.

That summary seems so busy, so hyperbolic, and the film does get stuck in some obvious bits, almost a necessary by-product of what is at base a reliably conventional comic plot. There’s hints of other stories bubbling up: a read on the workspace that complements his cult hit but doesn’t develop too substantively here; some space opened up but never explored for the two very interesting women (and two strong actors). A shame–the film could have been perhaps great. Instead, it’s just really, really, really enjoyable. What makes it work is how Judge’s style–a kind of deadpan minimalism–so perfectly fuels that silly plot; instead of getting lost in leers and exaggerated tics (his side characters are usually at base cartoonish buffoons), the film takes its sweet time listening to these people talk, even the loonies, gives the actors room to evoke and emote. And if he wraps up with a lot of sentiment, he’s earned it–as well as mocking it, by a late-film plot development that is so blithely derisive that it underscores the empathy Judge creates for (most of) these characters.