mart-burton Great to see Kevin Kline in a witty role again. Cleverly written lines give some snickers, excellent techniques at times transported me. The physical slapstick was a little off, but the gags made up for it. If you like Kevin Kline, you'll like this movie. Give it a try. It will appeal to the astute mind. The rich old women are entertaining and the glimpses of the other side of life are sensitively done, with tongue in cheek. The metaphor of the pigeons is a clever one observed by Henry (Kevin Kline) himself, in this high-brow yet Oscar Wildeish thrust-and-parry into the world of the Henry and his protégé, the young gentleman. Ending on a feel-good note with the credits rolling to a zany variation of a Marc Bolan written T-Rex number 'Dandy in the Underworld'. 8/10.

belmusica I was interested in this film after I heard an interview with Kevin Kline from Sundance. It sounded like an interesting character study. Kevin Kline always gives his parts a lot of personality. I also wanted to see John C. Reilly, I search out his films and enjoy the creative things that he does with his parts. Unfortunately,the script was not quite up to snuff. I found the characters unlikeable. Poor J.C.R. had to resort to a silly gimmick to make his character even interesting. Mr. Kline did the best he could with a very weak script. It was obvious that he was improvising quite a lot. The younger character had a few interesting parts but overall it was very unorganized. Oh well, I watched until the end and forgot about it.

Tony Rome I have not seen Kevin Kline as funny as he is here in "The Extra Man," since his Oscar winning "A Fish Called Wanda," I thought he would be hysterical as Artemus Gordon in "The Wild Wild West," but I was terribly mistaken. Kline redeems his comic traits in "The Extra Man," the character is zany, and eccentric, fully of mystery, and entertaining stories. His young protégé is also entertaining, with humor, and drama. I thought John C. Riley's performance was quite hilarious, even if it is a small role. The 3 mens antics as a team are funny as well as touching. I would definitely recommend this film be seen. *****

evanston_dad An ultimately fairly lame movie about a young man (Paul Dano) who rents a room from an older eccentric (Kevin Kline) and learns from him how to be a dandy.The biggest problem with "The Extra Man" is that the entire film hinges on what Dano's character learns from his experiences living with Kline, but what it is he learns is never made explicit to us. He seems to be confused about whether or not he wants the experience of being with women or BEING a woman (his hidden fetish is cross dressing), and there are several ambiguous questions about both his and Kline's sexuality that are never fully resolved. It would appear that at the film's end he's achieved some enlightenment about himself, but what that enlightenment is I certainly couldn't tell you.Dano is pretty good despite limitations in the material; Kline is merely serviceable. The film also stars John C. Reilly and Katie Holmes, who shows some spunk as a co-worker of Dano but whose role feels oddly truncated.Grade: C