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The ingredients of the The Extra Man appear so tasty.

• A screenplay co-written by Jonathan Ames, based on his novel. (How I love Ames's HBO series Bored to Death).
• Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini directing. (I also love their first film American Splendor.)
• Kevin Kline and Paul Dano in the leading roles. (The remarkable Dano, in my opinion, was robbed of an Oscar nomination for There Will Be Blood.)

• Katie Holmes in the requisite role of the pretty girl. (Though she has gotten too skinny, disturbingly thin)
• An appealing storyline about an aspiring young writer (Dano) who moves to New York and is taken under the wing of a male escort (Kline) to the city's wealthy elderly crew. Fun. A little quirky, but I am okay with that.

The first half hour is delicious. Like a Victorian tale, an old fashioned narrator gives voice into an otherwise contemporary landscape, providing trenchant observations and sly commentary in to the story. As the heart of the story is young Lewis Ives; he fancies himself a character in a Fitzgerald novel and has a secret desire to wear women's underclothes. He takes a room in Henry Harrison's (Kline) small Manhattan apartment. Henry is an odd duck; he is against sex with women (says it is bad for male writers) and also collects shiny Christmas balls. They cruise Manhattan in old cars and sneak into the opera. The older man provides lessons on how to be an "extra man."
But after their initial honeymoon, the story lags, and then altogether sags.

We meet John C. Reilly as Gershon. He looks like Hagrid from Harry Potter, but speaks in an absurd falsetto voice. The delightful premise of the film somehow becomes preposterous. It's a phenomenon in indie films I describe as "quirk overload." Dano's character becomes irritating in his passivity. Katie Holmes fails in her part as the lovely girl, because somehow, she just isn't lovely, but odd -- and also, she is irritating.

What should have been a light puff pastry is an overcooked hour and forty-five minutes loaf of bread. There is conflict, resolution, and a tidy, happy end. It's as if the cook poured far too much sugar into the pot and kept on stirring.

The Extra Man (2010)

Starring: Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, Katie Holmes, John C. Reilly
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Produced by: Stefanie Azpiazu, Jonathan Ames, Robert Pulcini
Running Time: 1 hr. 45 min.
Release Date: July 30th, 2010 (limited)
Distributors: Magnolia Pictures