KEVIN KLINE delivers a wonderful performance as Henry Harrison, an oddball, aging gentleman who believes that the education system has led to the demise of women and who has an affinity for Christmas balls. But is he enough to save viewers of The Extra Man from asking, “What was that for?”
The film follows Louis Ives (Paul Dano from Knight and Day and Little Miss Sunshine) after he loses is job as a Princeton English professor and decides to move to Manhattan to pursue his dream as a writer. Once there, he searches the newspapers classifieds (hasn’t he heard of Craigslist?) and finds a room for rent by a “gentleman” who seeks the same. Louis ends up in the home of Harrison, a formerly promising playwright, clinging to his dilapidated old car. Henry’s only source of income is moonlighting as an “extra man,” escorting elderly society women to their soirees. Louis, with his almost unnatural liking for F. Scott Fitzgerald, finds Harrison’s life exciting and decides to become an “extra man.” He also works for a magazine alongside environmentally conscious Mary (Katie Holmes), whose part in the story is ultimately nonessential.
The outlandish characters keep on coming, with John C. Reilly as Henry’s hairy neighbor—then there is the hunchback whom Henry believes stole his greatest play. All of the quirkiness provides laughs but doesn’t add up or lead anywhere other than mystification at how far from reality the characters have become. Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (American Splendor) create a world of eccentrics, but with so much going on in one film, they all get lost in a maze of awkwardness.
The Extra Man
R; 105 min.
Plays valleywide
