Dummy
Director: Greg Pritikin
Writer: Greg Pritikin
Cast: Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Vera Farmiga, Illeana Douglas, Jessica Walter, Ron Leibman, Jared Harris

Plot:
Steven (Adrien Brody) works a thankless office job and still lives at  home, where he dreams of becoming a ventriloquist. And one day he decides to actually go for it. He quits his job and starts training, with the support of his best friend Fangora (Milla Jovovich), who dreams of being a successful singer herself. Steven’s unemployment agent Lorena (Vera Farmiga) even finds a job for him, which leads Steven to express his crush on her in a rather unfortunate way. But bit by bit, he pieces his new life together.

I didn’t expect much of this film, despite the cast, because it apparently just disappeared directly into the bargain bin when it came out. But actually tht disappearance was absolutely uncalled for: it is a very sweet movie with a very nice message.

Dummy is a movie with heart and a sense of humor. They even have stalker jokes that actually work – and that is a very hard thing to pull off. But mostly it found its way into my heart through the story it tells and the message it sends: if you have a dream, you have to work hard at it and it won’t always be easy and you might not achieve greatness, but you won’t be happy unless you go after the things you really want.

And that is something that I can subscribe to. Especially when it comes out of a movie that at first seems like just another slacker film and it’s told with so much charm.

The cast is also really good. Adrien Brody is completely adorable and amazing. Though the women in the film are even better: Milla Jovovich is really funny – I didn’t know she had that in her. And Illeana Douglas is fantastic, as is Jessica Walter. And Vera Farmiga, of course.

In short, Dummy caught me by surprise – and I wish more films would surprise me so positively.

Summarising: Despite the fact that I’m not at all into ventriloquism, I really liked it.