BEFORE: Finally, a film about a business where they actually say what the company makes - it's right there in the title! This one was directed by Mike Judge, who I met at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2006. We'd been sharing a booth with the people who managed the Animation Show, a traveling festival that he co-founded, and during one of the days of the con, Judge himself showed up to see what it was all about, along with another reclusive animator, Don Hertzfeldt. Before we knew what was happening, an insane number of sketchbooks were being presented, with people requesting sketches of Beavis and Butthead or characters from "King of the Hill". I've rarely seen such a flurry of activity there...
THE PLOT: The owner of an Extract plant, tries to contend with myriad personal and professional problems, such as his potentially unfaithful wife and employees who want to take advantage of him.
AFTER: This is an odd little film - it's going to be hard for me to put a rating on it. Most of it is not laugh-out-loud funny, it's more like slice-of-life funny.
Joel, played by Jason Bateman (last seen in a cameo in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall") bounces between his extract plant and his home life, but when he's at work he wants to be at home, and when he's at home he wishes he were somewhere else too - so he hangs out at a bar and complains about his wife's lacking sex drive - while he himself is interested in a new attractive worker at his plant.
His friend who owns the bar (Ben Affleck, last seen in "Dazed and Confused") convinces him to hire a gigolo to test his wife's faithfulness, in order to justify the affair he wants to have. Yes, it's a bad idea, and things spiral out of control, since the cute new worker is only there to locate an injured worker who's due for a settlement.
There are some other twists, and some reversals, and wacky misunderstandings, but it didn't seem as unbelievable as say, "The Hudsucker Proxy", "Crazy People" or some other films I've watched this week. This seemed pretty grounded in reality - I could believe that most of these comic situations might actually occur. That's a neat trick, balancing comic entertainment with believability.
OK, so it's not exactly Shakespeare - or is it? There's something oddly classical about hiring someone to test your lover's fidelity, but I can't quite place it. I'm guessing this film didn't please people who were looking for a more wacky or gross-out comedy from the creator of "Office Space" and "Beavis and Butthead".
The central theme of the film seems to be guilt - people feeling guilty for cheating, for suing the company, for stealing, for thinking of selling the company, for not learning the employee's names, etc. etc. As Affleck's character suggests, most of these people just need to lighten up - a lot.
Also starring Mila Kunis (also last seen in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"), Kristen Wiig (last seen in "Semi-Pro"), David Koechner (last seen in "Thank You for Smoking"), J.K. Simmons (also last seen in "Thank You for Smoking"), with a cameo from Gene Simmons (yes, that Gene Simmons) and one from Mike Judge himself (as a disgruntled employee)
RATING: 5 out of 10 forklifts
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