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Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Extra Man (2011)


This is a quirky movie, and entirely suited to the Sundance Film Festival, where it made it's premier. It is a movie that may be seen as lacking focus, or veering dangerously off message, but I found it endearing, entertaining, and unlike anything I have seen this year (in a very pleasant way). But it lacks the universal appeal of a 'Little Miss Sunshine'--so beware.
Paul Dano ('Little Miss Sunshine') and Kevin Kline ('Emperor's Club' would be a comparable role) become roommates. Dano is a confused, immature young man who has remarkable luck getting a job that suits him, but that is where his luck ends. He is remarkably unsure about everything in his life, including his sexuality, and he lacks the basic skills to figure any of it out. Kline is a smart but failed man, scrambling to keep his apartment and his next meal, but loath to admit it. They are really not in any way alike. Worse yet, they don't bring out the best in each other. But they develop a relationship with each other, and have an effect on the other that is largely good (Kline more than Dano, but they each change a micrometer as a result of the other). The story goes almost nowhere--the progress is so slow that it is hard to even measure it, but at movie's end, I wanted more, so it entertained me and made me think in such an outside the box way as to be amusing, despite the movie's flaws.

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