The Extra Man

The Extra Man is a New York story that feels part Woody Allen, part Midnight Cowboy. Kevin Kline plays Henry Harrison, the eternal New Yorker hunkered down in his run-down rent stabilized apartment, once possibly a man of talent, now essentially a male companion to older well-to-do women. He is the man who sits in the “extra” chair. He is ”kept” but not “kept well,” angling a season ahead for that warm room in Florida, or summer house in the Hamptons.  Paul Dano (There will be Blood) plays Louis Ives, a confused young writer who moves to New York City, renting a room in Henry’s decaying tenement apartment. He’s the classic fish swimming in a bigger sea, eager to experience but trying not to be overwhelmed by the possibilities of the city. He wants to write but ends up doing low-level phone sales for an environmentally driven magazine. But any fiction he can imagine at this point in his young life is no match for the real-life strangeness he finds in Kevin Kline’s portrayal of the aging artist in full survival mode.

The Extra Man is based on a somewhat autobiographical novel by Jonathan Ames and directed by independent filmmakers Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer, who directed Paul Giamatti in the Oscar nominated American Splendor (2003). The narrative style of the film is whimsical, often emerging from the young writer’s own consciousness. This is pointed out specifically within the film when Louis (Paul Dano) . . . tells Mary (Katie Holmes as the “love interest”), that he often feels like he is in a novel, and hears a voice-over telling his story. When she looks at him funny and he looks down at his coffee, the voice-over continues, explaining that he probably made a mistake telling her that. It’s self referential and funny, a classic Woody Allen-like moment.

Henry Harrison and Louis Ives are perfectly compatible and thoroughly combustible roommates. Kline’s Henry is a real New York portrait--a dreamer who refuses to give in to reality, a misanthrope who is completely unrepentant, a dignified man without shame or scruples. And the setup is wonderfully plausible--Louis, who has been dreaming of the “gentleman’s life” by living imaginary scenes in his mind, sees an ad in a New York paper looking for a “gentleman” to rent a room. He meets Henry, who is obsessed with living the life of the “aristocrat” without the resources to do so and it is clear they are some version of the same younger/older selves. As a mentor Henry opens Louis’s eyes to a world of old money adventure that plays out like a soap opera. Louis, who has come to the city to find himself, follows a parallel story that is humorously set up in the first two scenes of the film. A Great Gatsby inspired fantasy is followed by an embarrassing “getting fired” sequence in which we learn that Louis is quite unsure about some basic gender issues. Played sometimes for uneasy laughs this plot line is followed with earnestness and leads to a series of odd and touching “underground” encounters.

The Extra Man is filled with funny and authentic moments. Louis wakes up on his first morning in the apartment to loud music and strange chanting. Henry is doing a weird tribal dance, shaking his body across the room in bizarre and unnatural ways. Louis answers a sex ad for spanking services and a weird but funny scene becomes unexpectedly sweet. Louis joins Henry and an ultra bearded urban hermit played by John C Reilly, where he learns the finer details of ballroom dancing. Katie Holmes’s makes a sad little pout after being told by her boyfriend that her cement themed protest song was a dud.

But the overlapping stories of Louis’s nightlife adventures and life in Henry’s apartment create a separation between the characters that feels incomplete. It is after all a film about a pair of male roommates, at least one of them who has some serious questions about his sexual identity. But it isn’t a relationship situation--Henry is much too focused on navigating the escort waters and Louis too confused about himself to think of anyone else. There is a weird tension between them that is part father/son and part “are they or aren’t they attracted to each other?” which is funny but not fully explored.

The Extra Man is ultimately about characters living parallel but separate lives in their own offbeat ways, trying to make their big-city dreams come true. Kevin Kline is funny and sincere and Paul Dano feels right as the boy who is trying to make sense of it all. With a good script, a fine cast, and some quirky directing it is a fun and knowingly a New York film.

                                    Thomas W. Campbell