Dummy (2003)
Runtime: 90 mins
Theatrical Release: Sep 12, 2003 Limited
Synopsis:
Family, friendship and romance find a voice in Dummy, the smartly offbeat and charming debut comedy from writer and director Greg Pritikin. Steven Schoichet (Adrien Brody, Academy Award® winner for The Pianist) is browbeaten at every turn, by his family, his dead-end job, the faceless...
Family, friendship and romance find a voice in Dummy, the smartly offbeat and charming debut comedy from writer and director Greg Pritikin. Steven Schoichet (Adrien Brody, Academy Award® winner for The Pianist) is browbeaten at every turn, by his family, his dead-end job, the faceless suburb where he still lives at home. That is until he decides to make a change. Ventriloquism. Hey, a dream’s a dream.
His family barely pays him enough attention to even dismiss the idea – his mother (Jessica Walter, Slums of Beverly Hills) is only concerned that he eat something, and his father (Ron Liebman, Tony Award® winner for “Angels In America”) only thinks of his model ships. Steven’s sister (Illeana Douglas, Grace of My Heart) recently broke off her engagement to an unstable accountant (Jared Harris, Happiness), which makes her career as a wedding planner an emotional minefield. His only supporter is neighbor Fangora (Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil) – really it’s Fanny, but that’s not very punk – who has her own aspirations to stardom.
After Steven loses his job, things actually start to turn around. He falls for his counselor at the unemployment office (Vera Farmiga, Fifteen Minutes), and through the best efforts of Steven and the little friend on his knee, good things start to happen for everyone around him. A restraining order leads to new love, a rock band learns Yiddish, and everything clicks into place at somebody else’s wedding. Funny, winsome, quick-witted, and brave – this Dummy is pretty sharp. -- © Artisan Pictures
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Illeana Douglas, Vera Farmiga, Jessica Walter
Screenwriter: Gregory Pritikin
Producer: Bob Fagan, Richard Temtchine
Composer: Paul Wallfisch
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Pritikin may be asking his audience to pay attention and embrace small successes, but with Dummy, he has pulled off a great one.
Pritikin's movie succeeds...thanks to its spirited, oddball humor and winning performances
Like its mini-mouthpiece, as pleasantly entertaining as Dummy often is, this ultimately hollow film sounds a few too many wooden notes and creaky jokes.
The characters are all strangely endearing, and the real pleasure of the movie is just watching them interact.
Definitely lives down to its name -- you can see the lips moving on this wooden thing.
Surprisingly endearing in moments thanks to finely tuned comic performances, especially from Brody.
[T]he best ventriloquist -stalker -family-drama -romantic -comedy I've seen in, well maybe forever.
Dummy might have been a better movie if Greg Pritikin had done a few more rewrites on his script, and if he'd had more than a few weeks in which to shoot it.
It's a sweetly sad and sadly funny tale, conceived with quirky sensitivity, but, though its actors are adept, it only just hangs together, like a sitcom still in rehearsal stages.
It's repetitive and obvious but somehow endearing, like a truly ugly dog with sweet eyes.
Pritikin's shrewd comedy-drama catches a fine flock of family emotions on the wing, and not the over-exposed ones.
What could have been a biting dark comedy is, instead, uninspired and generic.
Brody is a real talent, and Illeana Douglas is a riot as his older sister.
The result is the kind of oddball independent film that's almost a parody of the genre.
A mildly engaging addition to that curious sub-genre of American independent filmmaking, the whimsical comedy of Long Island alienation.
Adrien Brody rescues Greg Pritikin's self-consciously eccentric comedy.
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