The Extra Man

Without question, this is the worst movie I have seen all year long.

Paul Dano stars as Louis Ives - a college professor who gets fired, so he decides to head off to Manhattan to become a working writer. Of course, it's not easy being a writer (nor very profitable for people who are not named Stephen King), and Louis must move into an apartment with Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline) - an older gentleman with no discernable source of income who escorts rich widows to fancy parties and society events to help balance out the male to female ratios.

Will Louis find inspiration and employment?

The Extra Man is supposed to be a fast paced, hilarious farce, but it's just boring and uneventful. Dano struggles to bring any relevance to Louis as he is equally battling to come to grips with his sexual identity (he thinks he might enjoy being a transvestite) and his pursuit of a beautiful co-worker played by Katie Holmes. Neither story delivers a laugh, a tear, a guffaw or any emotional reaction at all as Dano takes flat to new levels of dull and tedious.

Then, poor Kline is forced to ham it up and do everything possible to make us laugh with a paucity of funny moments. While Henry is supposed to be a character who was plucked out of a previous time period in New York's history, which could be funny, the rest of his world seems equally out of time, which isn't funny and doesn't make any sense. Honestly, I have never been this silent at a comedy, and I was left wondering what Kline saw in the script.

The Extra Man is playing in limited release across the country, or you can check it out On Demand via your cable TV provider. If you watch it at home, at least you didn't waste money on parking, dinner and more. Plus, I won't tell if you turn it off halfway through to watch a repeat of Two and a Half Men. The Extra Man is rated R for some sexual content.