The Extra Man centers on Louis Ives (Paul Dano), a young man who sees himself as the hero of an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. When he’s forced to leave his job at a Princeton prep school, he heads to New York City to start over, where he finds work at an environmental magazine and falls for co-worker Mary (Katie Holmes). But Kline’s the one who really changes things for Louis. In a particularly apt piece of casting, Kline is “a penniless, wildly eccentric and brilliant playwright” who likes to dance to obscure music, sing operettas, and play “the extra man” to Manhattan’s wealthy widows. As the official synopsis explains, “The two men develop a volatile mentorship, which leads to a series of urban adventures — encountering everything from a leaping lion to a wildly jealous hirsute neighbor to drunken nonagenarians to a shady Swiss hunchback.”
Need I say more? Dano and Kline going on adventures under the directorial eye of the man who gave us American Splendor should be enough. But we’ve also got Katie Holmes returning to the Kline fold for the first time since The Ice Storm all those years ago, and John C. Reilly also co-stars (yes, that’s him behind that scruffy beard). The film won’t hit screens until July 30th, but impatient types can get a dose early when it hits VOD on June 25th.
Theater Premiere
July 30, 2010
finally a release date. nice poster.