The Extra Man

Fine and Dandy - Kevin Kline in The Extra Man
 
Time Investment: 108 min.
Return on Investment: 93 min.
 
Reading Jonathan Ames’ 1999 novel, The Extra Man, the quirky characters and New York setting make it an obvious choice for transferring to the silver screen. Fortunately directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have delivered a cinematic version of The Extra Man (Magnolia Pictures) that possibly improves on Ames’ outstanding book.
 
At the outset, Louis Ives (Paul Dano) has been let go from his job at a cushy private school—the consequence of near-crippling awkwardness and a tendency to cross-dress. Making lemonade out of lemons, Ives ventures to Manhattan and rents a room from the eccentric Henry Harrison (a divine Kevin Kline). As Ives attempts to decipher his transvestite interests, he also tries to get closer to Harrison, a bachelor living off the largess of wealthy Manhattan widows as a walker. Harrison takes Ives under his wing, introducing him to his lady friends and the finer points of being “an extra man.” (The term comes from the ability to even out an odd-numbered social occasion.)
 
Dano conveys the right amount of naïveté for Ives, but this is Kline’s vehicle. Harrison is at times delightful, delusional, selfish and hilarious, and Kline masters him at every turn. Playing Mary, a sweet if overly P.C. colleague at the magazine Louis works for, Katie Holmes is, dare I say, charming. Also great is John C. Reilly as Gershon, Harrison’s downstairs neighbor who looks like Hagrid and sounds like Tiny Tim. These are the off-kilter characters we all moved to New York to meet. —Dan Avery