Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Extra Man Blu-ray Movie Review

The Extraneous Film

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater December 6, 2010

Critical darlings after their brilliantly offbeat feature film debut, American Splendor, husband and wife filmmaking team Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman have since dropped the proverbial ball. Their follow-up, 2007’s The Nanny Diaries, was widely panned despite a terrific cast including Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, and Paul Giamatti. That trend continues with The Extra Man, which features an impressive line-up of talent—Paul Dano, Kevin Kline, Katie Holmes, and John C. Reilly—but labors under an excessive need to be kooky. (Although, I can see how, after The Nanny Diaries, they might want to let loose a little.) In trying to recapture the idiosyncratic tone that made Spendor such a success, the writer/director duo has turned here to the wacky world of New York’s upper eastside, where old money and no money sometimes collide to comic effect. Here, they merely collide.

It keeps off the fleas...

Prep school English teacher Lewis Ives, played by the appropriately milquetoast thespian Paul Dano, is a bit of a Miniver Cheevy—that is, “born too late.” The 21st century doesn’t quite suit him; he would like to think of himself, rather, as the dapper protagonist of some hypothetical 1920s novel and—he’s never told anyone this before—he sometimes even imagines a narrator giving a running commentary of his every action and thought. (Said narration is provided by Graeme Malcolm in an ornately literary mid-Atlantic clip.) When he daydreams, he pictures himself as Nick Carraway, the observant outsider of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, but—and here’s the idiosyncratic kicker—he also sees himself as Daisy, the novel’s siren-like heroine. He has what he calls “bipolar fantasies.” On one hand, he wants to be a dandy, a gentleman. On the other, he’d like to look into the mirror and see a beautiful woman staring back. You might say he has unresolved sexual issues, and when he gets fired from his teaching post after trying on a co-worker’s brassiere, he decides to move to Manhattan, pursue his writing, and “find himself.”

Lewis answers an ad for a room rented “by gentleman, seeking same,” and moves in with Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline), a threadbare and literally flea-bitten erstwhile aristocrat and one-time playwright who’s bitter because his former lodger—a Russian sexual deviant with a hunchback—stole his would-be magnum opus. (As you can probably tell by now, the film makes a sport of layering eccentricity upon eccentricity.) Henry is obsessed with, amongst other things, Christmas ornaments, dancing frantically in the morning to the music from Dr. Zhivago, and stamping out even normative sexual desires in himself and those around him, to the point of proclaiming that his views on sex are “to the right of the Pope’s.” “What’s his deal?” we wonder along with Lewis. Is he gay but closeted even to himself? Is he a sad sack who never recovered from a heartbreak in his youth? Is he just a batshit-crazy old-money New Yorker with an ax to grind? The film practically invites the audience to play psychoanalyst. What we do learn, is that—contrary to his stance on sex—Henry actually eeks out his meager living as an “extra man,” a gigolo who accompanies decrepit billionairesses to high-society functions.

Lewis and Henry are an odd couple, alright, not because they’re polar opposites, like Oscar and Felix, but because they’re both incalculably odd. And it only gets weirder. Henry eventually starts mentoring Lewis in the fine art of being a penniless aristocrat-cum-gigolo. Lessons include how to sneak into the opera, how to apply shoe polish to your ankles when you’ve run out of socks, and how to piss in the street without a.) getting arrested and b.) getting urine on your overcoat. Lewis gets a full-time job at an environmental magazine—where he falls in unrequited love with a hardcore vegan coworker (Katie Holmes)—but he also moonlights as an extra extra man and spends his free time getting cross-dressing consultation from Miss Heart, a “recession spankologist.” (Obviously, tough financial times call for low-rate deviant sexual exploration.) Did I mention that John C. Reilly shows up in a bit role as Henry’s handyman, a chronic masturbator with a Grizzly Adams beard and a pipsqueak voice that’s an octave too high?

Yes, The Extra Man tries to coast along on quirky characterization and oddball antics, but ultimately it drifts aimlessly in circles. The story goes nowhere, existing in a kind of tragi-comic doldrums where the drama lacks impact and the comedy is too slight to generate laughs. Stylistically, it feels like a lesser Wes Anderson film, just as precocious—see the old-timey iris fades and twee flashbacks—but not nearly as polished. Anderson’s movies have a certain cinematic self-consciousness, an awareness of their own theatricality, and although Berman and Pulcini shoot for this same sort of stagy, vaguely storybook effect, the husband-and-wife co-directors lack the chops to pull it off. For all the style-over-substance criticisms that Anderson is subject to, his films have heart and clear narrative arcs, while The Extra Man only has the shaggy comfort of its own kookiness.

Your enjoyment of the film will likely depend on whether or not you’re content to simply spend two hours hanging out with these peculiar characters. Dano and Kline present a strong case. The script requires them to border on caricature, but both actors manage to make the abnormalities of their roles seem plausible, even sympathetic. After being known in the industry as Kevin “Decline” for his penchant for turning down roles, it’s strange that Kline decided to accept the part of Henry, but he chews the proverbial scenery with relish. Dano is just dandy as well— pardon the pun—but his performances are always more impressive when he’s working with better material, like his fiery turn as the young, Bible- thumping preacher in There Will Be Blood. Here he seems like a more grown-up Michael Cera—take that how you will.

The Extra Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Magnolia Home Entertainment introduces The Extra Man to Blu-ray with a strong 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer. As usual, Magnolia takes a hands-off approach, presenting the film naturally, with no DNR abuses, edge enhancement mishaps, or other unnecessary post-process tweaking. Clarity is well-shy of exemplary, but there's a satisfying amount of fine detail to be found in the 2.35:1-framed image, from the defined shapes of raindrops dotting the windshield of Lewis' car, to the threading on the shabby costumes and the individually discernable hairs of John C. Reilly's massive beard. Color reproduction is largely realistic, with rich neutrals and vivid primaries, except during the sepia-tinged flashback sequences and a few scenes—like the one at the beach—that have been tonally stylized. Black levels are deep without unnecessarily crushing shadow detail, and contrast is spot-on. Likewise, grain is unobtrusive and I spotted no compression or encode issues of note.

The Extra Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Understandably, the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is light on sonic theatrics, but the presentation is perfectly suited to the material. The mix is anchored up front, with clear, balanced dialogue reproduction, but the satellite speakers are occasionally put into action to convincingly flesh out the New York City soundscape. Cars pass through the rears accompanied by distant traffic noise, thunder peels and rain pours during a storm, and when the characters make a trip to be the beach, wind and oceanic ambience fill the space around us. The effects are quiet and subtle, but are definitely appreciated. The film's score tries dimly to convey a Jon Brion-ish sense of melancholic whimsy—think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or I Heart Huckabees—but it at least sounds good, with clarity across the dynamic spectrum and adequate presence.

The Extra Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary Tracks: The disc comes with two, the first with co-directors Shari Berman and Robert Pulcini, production designer Judy Becker, costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb, and moderator Lisa Collins, and the second features actor Kevin Kline and Jonathan Ames, the author of the novel on which the movie is based.
• Deleted Scene (SD, 1:52): Yes, singular. A cut scene of Mary telling Lewis about seeing a homeless woman defecating on the street.
• Cartoon Clip Voiceover Recording (SD: 00:40): See Bruce Winant and Jennifer Perito in a recording booth doing voiceovers for Gary Lieb's short animated duck cartoon.
• Behind the Scenes Score Footage (SD, 8:24): Co-composers Klaus Badelt and Christopher Carmicheal discuss their approaches to scoring the film.
• HDNet - A Look at The Extra Man (1080i, 4:17): A typical HDNet promo, featuring an explanation of the film and brief interviews with the directors and stars.

The Extra Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Extra Man putters around aimlessly, ensconced in its own oddities, and while this may work for New York's kookier characters—who seemingly don't care what others think of them—it makes for a drag of a feature film. (It's not so much style-over-substance as it is crazy-over-content.) There are brief moments of comic gold and dramatic depth here, but they're just that—brief. At best, I'd recommend a rental.