Dummy is a film starring Adrien Brody as a ventriloquist and interestingly Brody actually studied and performed his own ventriloquism for the shoot (which he does impressively). He actually made Dummy prior to the Pianist, and my guess is he wasn't really playing the piano during the filming of his now famous Oscar Winning performance. Adrien Brody has the perfect demeanor to play the introverted nebbish Steven Schoichet. Steven still lives with his family - an exaggerated dysfunctional lot - that, while a bit too broad and underwritten, are still a good bit of fun even as a backdrop to the story. Steven's life is unfulfilling to say the least, and as the film begins we see him watching and old Edgar Bergen - Charley Macarthy bit on TV that soon brings him to tears.

The next day Steven buys himself a ventriloquist dummy and sets about an all out campaign to perfect the art. Steven proves to have an affinity for the trade and is soon taking his dummy with him everywhere. After a few classes and a book or two his dummy comes to life and begins to draw out a confident, funny assertive side of Steven that he never knew he had. This film is largely a metaphor about the duality of human nature - sometimes drawn with heartbreakingly accuracy and other times not so profoundly - but most of the characters are fascinating in the quirks they use to disguise the pain of their unrequited dreams.

Within the first 20 minutes of the film Steven has lost his job (some sort of big cubicle Office Space type job that obviously doesn't pay well enough to allow him to get his own place. The real fun begins when Steven heads down to file for unemployment and instantly falls in love (as did I) with his case worker. The actresses name is Vera Farmiga (15 Minutes) and you will also fall in love with her. Steve has difficulty describing to her exactly what he did at his old job so eventually has Vera put him into the system as a Ventriloquist.

To back up just a bit, Steve's only human friend is a 30 year old wannabe rock star named Fanny (Fangora) who fronts a goth death metal band. Strangely enough Fanny is played my Milla Jovovich and she just isn't quite right for the role, she's too old-looking and far too often overplays her frustrated miserable misfit part. This is a minor complaint however. Steven's family include a retired father (Ron Liebman) who builds models of WWII warships while he watches pornography, his perfect housewife of a mother (Jessica Walter) who is always in the kitchen making goodies, but has a way of making her children feel like failures in a way that only David Lynch fully understands. The parents parts are thin, but it doesn't hurt the film, they're just a sideshow. His sister (Ileana Douglas) is late in her twenties, unmarried, unhappy, always having to beg to borrow a car so she can function at her profession as a wedding planner - and her performance is flawless. There was a time when she had every intention of becoming a musical diva.

Douglas was almost to the altar with a successful accountant (Jared Harris) who turned out to be an alcoholic psycho. He too is hilarious, lunging drunkenly out at Steve occasionally and pumping him for info on his sister and begging him to report back to her that they'd had a chance encounter and that he'd kicked the bottle and really turned himself around. He was hilarious and managed to convey a really Woody Allenesque vibe in a macho threatening way, one of the more interesting elements of the film.

In any case the chief plot of the film involves Fanny's attempts to help Steven win the affection of Vera and along the way, there are some seriously funny moments. (Just as an example, Fanny is always shop-lifting little gifts for Steven and before his first big romantic evening with Vera, Fanny nicks him some classical music which she convinces him will get the romance a rollin' - it turns out to be John Phillip Sousa.) The film, while often hilarious and endearing, again has a dual nature that lays bare the pain and pathos of all of the characters. You'll be amazed at Brody's performance with the Dummy, there are some classic comic interplay between the two, as well as a creepy sort of 'who is really controlling who' vibe reminiscent of the old Anthony Hopkins classic Magic.

Writer/director Greg Pritikin's writing skills have created some excellent characters and situations, which as a director he doesn't always control quite as well - much like, I suppose a ventriloquist's situation with his dummy. Sometimes this film gets away from him a bit. (I had a few other minor quibbles, particularly the ending - I won't tell you whether it's happy or sad, but it's terribly rushed and pat.) By and large however, I found myself charmed and grinning throughout, even though so many of the characters were miserable in their lives. The overriding message of the film is that, yes we all have big dreams, but for most of us, we eventually have to settle for a 9 to 5 steady paycheck and, if we're lucky, someone to love and share our pedestrian existence. This is all part of that duality business I was blathering on about above. Bottom line, if you're into The Fast and the Furious skip it, if you're into Tim Burton see it immediately. There are just so many oddball performances and hilarious little moments that you can't deny it's a winner.