The Extra Man Is Too Whimsical For Its Own Good

Gives me hope of one day being a gigolo myself.

Forced to quit his prep school job after a humiliating incident, would-be dramatist Louis Ives (Paul Dano) heads to New York City, where he rents a room from has-been playwright Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline)–who earns a living escorting rich dowagers about town. Despite their huge age difference, the two develop a bond as Henry takes Louis under his wing and leads him on a series of wild adventures.

The Extra Man is a very silly film that actually works if you like a lot of those quirky situations, with a lot of quirky characters, as well. I had a couple of chuckles here and there with this film, and although it doesn’t fully make you have belly laughs, you still smile.

The problem here, though, is that there is almost too much whimsy, and the actual heart of the story gets lost. I don’t mind when films are being whimsical and silly, but when The Extra Man proved to just be that and nothing else, it started to bother me, considering this story could have actually had some real comedy. Instead, the film just focuses on lame whimsy.

There’s also this sort of strange “sexual identity crisis” that Louis is going through where he likes to wear chicks’ clothing, but instead of actually showing some benefits of that (because he is in New York), the film makes it some sort of cheap joke and plays it off as a gag, which kind of comes off as insulting in the end. I’m not saying that I wear ladies clothing, but the way they treated this plot device was poor, and maybe for the next film, directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini can poke fun at people’s disabilities or their skin color, because it wouldn’t have been any worse than some of the stuff they have here.

However, the cast is what makes up for this film’s shortcomings, especially Kevin Kline, who just gives it his all as Henry Harrison. Kline is given the opportunity to sport all that brilliant comedic timing he has used so well throughout his whole career, and although his character may have flaws that are brought up and never really talked about, we still like this character because he just is so charming. Kline knows how to be smart, witty, charming, but also realistic, and here he makes Henry a fun guy to be around.  When he’s not in the film, you can feel it.

Paul Dano is pretty good as Louis Ives, an exceedingly shy, awkward, and overly-polite wimpy, young prep school teacher who decides to leave his chosen profession and take his chances in New York City as a writer.  John C. Reilly is strange but also funny as Gershon, and Katie Holmes is here as Mary, but isn’t really given much to do other than look pretty, and possibly be a weenie-tease for Paul Dano’s character.

Consensus: The cast is good, especially Kline, and there are some funny moments to be had, but the narrative feels a bit disjointed with certain moments just being mean and others being way too whimsical to actually be considered funny.

5/10=Rental!!