Extract

Jason Batemen plays Joel, the owner of an extract-making factory. Joel is bored—bored with his factory and bored with his marriage. In response to the boredom, Joel thinks he wants to sell the factory to General Mills and maybe bonk his new hottie assembly-line temp (Mila Kunis). In response to Joel’s wants, the film gives us a workplace accident that leads to an impending lawsuit that may threaten the sale of the factory, as well as a turn where his wife (Kristen Wiig) repeatedly gets down with a gigolo whom Joel hired so he could feel OK about cheating. Batemen is a charming actor with great deadpan timing, but there’s been almost nothing provided in these flat proceedings with which he can put his charms to use. The forced, lazy story is only part of the problem though. Here, with the exception of a few moments with Joel, plus Affleck’s druggy, floppy-haired, hotel lounge bartender and a funny line by a lawyer played by a frightening-looking Gene Simmons, every character is forgettable. Kunis is a blank-faced cardboard cutout, and even the normally charming Wiig is left to uncomfortably squirm as she is reduced to being the butt of an extended joke. Tinseltown. Rated R