6.5 | / 10 |
Users | ![]() | 0.0 |
Reviewer | ![]() | 3.0 |
Overall | ![]() | 3.0 |
Louis Ives is a lonely dreamer who fancies himself the hero of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. When an 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 finds a job at an environmental magazine, where he encounters Mary, an entrancing, green-obsessed co-worker. But, what really sparks Louis’ imagination is his new home life. He rents a room in the ramshackle apartment of Henry Harrison, a penniless, wildly eccentric and brilliant playwright. When Henry’s not dancing alone to obscure music or singing operettas, he’s performing – with great panache -- the duties of an “extra man,” a social escort for the wealthy widows of Manhattan high society. The two men develop a volatile mentorship, which leads to a series of urban adventures -- encountering everything from a leaping lion to a wildly jealous hirsute neighbor to drunken nonagenarians to a shady Swiss hunchback.
Starring: Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John C. Reilly, Marian Seldes, Celia WestonComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | ![]() | 2.5 |
Video | ![]() | 4.0 |
Audio | ![]() | 4.0 |
Extras | ![]() | 2.0 |
Overall | ![]() | 3.0 |
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...
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.
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 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.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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