The Extra Man (2010)
Average Rating: 5.4/10
Reviews Counted: 68
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 39
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 15
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.9/5
User Ratings: 2,386
My Rating
Movie Info
A sophisticated and moving comedy, THE EXTRA MAN follows Louis Ives (Paul Dano), a lonely dreamer who fancies himself the hero of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel... When a deeply embarrassing incident forces him to leave his job at an exclusive Princeton prep school, Louis heads to New York City to make a fresh start. He quickly finds a nine-to-five job at an environmental magazine, where he encounters an entrancing, green-obsessed co-worker Mary (Katie Holmes). But it's Louis' new home life that
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Cast
-
Paul Dano
Louis Ives -
Kevin Kline
Henry Harrison, Henry H... -
Katie Holmes
Mary -
John C. Reilly
Gershon -
John Pankow
George -
Celia Weston
Lagerfeld -
Patti D'Arbanville
Katherine -
Lynn Cohen
Lois -
Marian Seldes
Vivian -
Dan Hedaya
Aresh -
Jason Butler Harner
Otto Bellman -
Alicia Goranson
Sandra -
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The Extra Man Trailer & Photos
All Critics (70) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (29) | Rotten (39)
[A] drearily quirky mess.
Top CriticAn entertaining kinky kick of a movie, a lightweight delight about dreamers and dilettantes.
Dano and Kline are very fine performers. So why is this comedy such a chore? The answer appears to be whimsy overload.
Swifter comedic timing and a clearer narrative thread might have helped center this peculiar adaptation of Jonathan Ames's 1998 novel of the same name. Then again, maybe not.
Some actors are dinner. Kevin Kline is dessert, and his comic brio saves the film version of The Extra Man from its limitations.
The movie aggressively pushes its whimsicality to the point where it feels less whimsical than just aggressive.
Kevin Kline's tour de force, a performance of uncommon joie de vivre.
A typical Sundance type comedy that confuses quirkiness with humor. Needless to say, it stars Paul Dano in his typically weird character role. A totally annoying film.
Belly laughs are few and far between but the overarching tone of silliness deftly underscored by the human experience makes for a largely fulfilling cinematic experience.
Kevin Kline, who has a gift for this kind of characterization, heads up a talented trio of actors, all playing extremely quirky characters who are borderline pathological, but funny and harmless.
The pic becomes too bent out of shape by so many kooks sharing the spotlight.
Harrison's life is a quest only for pleasure, and Kline and Dano definitely provide it, even if their arc is short and shallow. See it for Kevin.
I did a lot of squirming with this one.
I loved Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's The Extra Man, but it's not going to be to everyone's liking.
The episodic script is all verve and no wit, a relentless tribute to nonconformity that starts to exhaust its goofiness after the first hour.
While directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini are busy tipping their caps to their favorite literary figures, they seem to forget their obligation to good movie-making.
Too clever for its own good, this film moves abruptly between serious drama and broad comedy.
...so full of improbabilities (you begin to wonder if anyone connected with the film has actually been to New York) that the whole experience just becomes wearying.
"Extra Man" is a loving ode to the eccentrics of New York, and a wish that even in today's Disneyfied Manhattan, the city will always make room for the weirdos, too.
The Extra Man is a disappointment coming from Berman and Pulcini, whose American Splendor was an imaginative biopic about the late comic-book author Harvey Pekar.
Audience Reviews for The Extra Man
Super Reviewer
Having watched it, that's still true. Story is okay, young guy who enjoys cross dressing
Loses his job and winds up moving and sharing a flat with a much older man who works as an escort. It's a bit slow and some of the characters I just found irritating.
Lecy is only in it for five minutes at the end, but that scene is a highlight and quite funny.
It's an okay movie to watch just once, but missing it would be okay too.
Super Reviewer
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Latest News on The Extra Man
August 12, 2010:
Paul Dano Talks The Extra ManIt isn't one of the summer's biggest releases, but "The Extra Man" has earned a measure of critical...
July 30, 2010:
Critics Consensus: Dinner for Schmucks Serves Up An OK TimeThis week at the movies, we've got a dinner party disaster (Dinner for Schmucks, starring Steve...
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This is a quirky, whimsical comedy that has more than a few chuckle lines delivered by the irrepressible Kevin Kline. Kline's character is a fop, a fool who fancies himself a gentleman, and with over-wrought aphorisms his instruction of Louis, played by the demure Paul Dano, provides much of the film's delightful comic moments.
There are times when the film overdoes its quirk, especially in the falsetto voice of John C. Reilly and some of the situations Louis's sexuality puts him into. On the flip side is the Katie Holmes character; the bland actress plays "the girl," a part with no personality and little use to the film's plot.
Overall, The Extra Man features of a fine comic team in Kline and Dano, but their talents could have been put to better use had the film been more subtle; if only Miranda July, who adds just the right pinches of quirk, could have directed it...