The Extra Man

2010 | 108 minutes | Rated R

Fired from his teaching job at a posh northeastern finishing school for modeling a brassiere in the teachers' lounge, a high-strung young striver with vague literary ambitions (Paul Dano) drifts into Manhattan in search of self-knowledge. He winds up sharing a cramped apartment with a failed playwright and overbearing misogynist (Kevin Kline) who ekes out a living as an escort for society women. The latter grandly imparts dubious life lessons to the former as the former wrestles with his shameful transvestite urges and his futile attraction to an ecologically conscious coworker (Katie Holmes) with whom he has nothing in common. Based on a novel by Jonathan Ames, this drearily quirky mess wants to be Secretary for submissive males, but it's just a sitcom in a powdered wig and size 17 pumps. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini directed. By Cliff Doerksen

Official Site: www.theextramanmovie.com
Director: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
Producer: Anthony Bregman, Stephanie Davis, Jonathan Ames, Stefanie Azpiazu, Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini, Vincent Maraval and Agnes Mentre
Cast: Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, John C. Reilly, Katie Holmes, Marian Seldes, Celia Weston, Patti D'Arbanville, Dan Hedaya, Lynn Cohen and John Pankow