The Extra Man (Tuesday, August 3, 2010) (90)

The Extra Man is a screwball comedy based on a Jonathan Ames book, directed by Shari Springer Berman and Rober Pulcini, who directed American Splendor (and The Nanny Diaries), and adapted by all three. It generally has the neurotic and silly frankness of Ames fare and feels a lot like the Ames HBO show Bored to Death. I don't think it's about as good as the TV show, which is to say not as good as American Splendor (or The Nanny Diaries). It certainly has moments of funniness, but overall takes itself much too seriously and has some very slow streaks, particularly toward the end.


Louis Ives (Paul Dano) is a young man who fancies himself a writer. He moves into an apartment in New York City as the roommate to Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline), an older gentleman who has been a playwright in the past, but now passes his days pretending to be rich and perfecting the art of being the "extra man". An "extra man" is basically a walker, though maybe not necessarily gay. In the context here, Harrison spends his time looking after one woman in particular who is super rich and has a big apartment he would like one day to move into. Louis and Henry co-exist for awhile until Henry begins to teach his young renter how to be an extra man.


Meanwhile, Louis is obsessed with cross dressing and kinky sex and has a low opinion of himself with regard to sex (well, really with regard to everything in life). He has a crush on a cute woman at work, Mary (Katie Holmes), but she has a boyfriend, so he steers clear of her mostly.


One big problem with the film is that there is basically no plot - basically nothing really happens. There are a bunch of scenes where stuff happens, but they don't really push any story along. The film is basically the journey of Louis, but it's really a trip with no particular direction. The film starts out pretty strong and funny and devolves into cheap jokes and dull set-ups.


Aside from all of this, major chunks of the film are not really necessary - like the whole character of Mary, who Louis is not really all that interested in sexually. Other plot points and characters are present, but we don't totally know why.


I have been a fan of Paul Dano in the past, but for reasons I can't figure out, he frequently doesn't pick good roles (ever since Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood at least). This film has the general feel of a piece he did in 2009 called Gigantic, which was also about a lost twenty-something. That movie was a dud too.


Here Dano is pretty awkward and flat. I guess he's supposed to be awkward, but it's not clear why he stays in the weird situations Henry puts him in. He's sorta passive through the whole film and it's not totally clear why. Kevin Kline, on the other hand, is over-the-top and pretty funny, though the role gets a bit tired by the mid-point of the film.


Really the whole film gets tired by the middle. It feels like the writers ran out of ideas and just kept writing stuff to keep the camera running. That the movie comes out at 105 minutes is ridiculous; at least 15 minutes should have been cut out. Mostly it feels like four consecutive episodes of Bored to Death - but ultimately less funny and more annoying than that. At least those episodes end after about 25 minutes.


Stars: 1.5 of 4