Film Review: Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly Are Eccentric New Yorkers in ‘The Extra Man’

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CHICAGO – The beauty of watching creative character actors like Kevin Kline and John C. Reilly is that they seem to revel in the craft of embodying their roles. In “The Extra Man,” they both take a trippy and literate script and apply some additional magic that helps to flesh out a young man’s journey into the heart of Manhattan.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Louis Ives (Paul Dano) is a twentysomething man who doesn’t quite fit in this particular modern era (he channels a 1920s ethos). As a moony literature professor at a private boarding school, he secretly lusts after his female high school age students and displays a certain pan sexual quirk that to date has gone unfulfilled. After he is laid off from his teaching position, he takes a leap of faith and finally heads to his dream world of New York City, to be a real working writer and man about town.

As fate would have it, he finds a room on the upper west side of the city, with a strange man whose inquiries are instinctively passive aggressive. He is Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline), an eccentric on the upside of age sixty, continuing a peculiar city adventure by offering himself as an “extra man.” He escorts rich widows to swanky society events, and partakes in the finer amenities without having to pay. Young Louis is intrigued by this, and longs for older mentor to introduce him into the extra man realm, which Henry does reluctantly and with a great deal of foppish complaining.

After securing a job at an environmental magazine, Louis starts to explore the side of himself that Manhattan can easily provide. So while acclimating to his new job, attempting to connect to Henry and falling for an attractive co-worker (Katie Holmes), Louis allows himself to completely be the “man” that has been percolating inside his whole life. The consequences of that expression has implications for every person and circumstance involved, including a silent neighbor named Gershon (John C. Reilly).

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Extra Man”

Just Some Gigolos: Louis Ives (Paul Dano) and Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline) in ‘The Extra Man’ Photo Credit: © Magnolia Pictures

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “The Extra Man”