Extra Ordinary ★★★ ½
Extra Ordinary
Cast: Maeve Higgins, Barry Ward, Will Forte Director: Mike Ahern, Enda Loughman Duration: 1 h 34 m
Film lovers will often use one movie as a litmus test for another. Google “films like Strange Brew” and the Internet will suggest Spaceballs by Mel Brooks, Hamlet Goes Business by Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki ( same source material) and 1933’s What — No Beer? with Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante. Try watching The Mandalorian on Netflix and it will demur and offer up the monster- hunter drama The Witcher as the next best thing.
I’m here to suggest that if you’re a fan of Taika Waititi’s 2014 comedy What We Do in the Shadows, about a loose collection of vampire flatmates in Wellington, then you might want to give Ireland’s Extra Ordinary a try. It has the same off- the- wall humour and low- fi sensibility, and is best categorized as a romantic comedy with ghosts.
Barry Ward stars as Martin Martin, a single dad trying to raise a teenaged daughter, but constantly hounded by the ghost of his dead wife. Her mildly scary paranormal activities include scorning his wardrobe choices, and flinging plates across the room when he puts them in the wrong dishwasher slot. ( These are exactly the kinds of ghosts my wife and I would become if we suddenly departed, by the way.)
Martin seeks out the help of Rose Dooley ( Maeve Higgins), whose answering machine announces her as a driving instructor who “doesn’t do that other thing any more.” Seems Rose used to help her dad (now also deceased) in ghost-busting and other supernatural work. “Like The Exorcist?” Martin asks her. “Never met him,” Rose replies.
Rose at first refuses to help Martin with his extra-( sensory)- marital issues, but changes her mind when failed musician Christian Winter ( Will Forte) puts a spell on Martin’s daughter. Christian has moved to Ireland for tax purposes, but is still a one-hit wonder, so he’s planning a human sacrifice to a demon in exchange for further musical inspiration. ( I’m pretty sure that’s how The Wiggles made it big.)
Extra Ordinary is the first feature from Irish co- writers/directors Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman. It’s been wafting around the world for the past 12 months, picking up various festival awards. It combines the natural and the preternatural in just the right measure, funny without tipping into lookat- me wacky. ( Forte comes closest but pulls back just in time.)
I don’t want to spoil the best gags, so I’ll just list one joke the movie chooses not to make. When Martin’s daughter suggests in the early going that they need help getting rid of the ghost of her mother, Martin’s sarcastic reply is made without even a flutter of a knowing wink: “Oh, and who you gonna call?” ΠΠΠ½ Extra Ordinary opens March 13 in Edmonton and Toronto; March 17 in Saint Catharines; March 20 in Calgary; and
April 3 in Kitchener.