Dummy is a wonderful colorful movie that I just picked up because i really like Adrian Brody and Vera Farmiga. But surprise, surprise....the real star of the show is neither of the two. Milla Jovovich as the incessantly cursing punk rock star steals the show. The movie is essentially about a shy person(Brody) who wants to be a ventriloquist and his tumultuous life. Milla is his only friend who is brash and loud. She tries to help him out when Brody is interested in his employment counselor(Farmiga). A brilliantly scripted movie with a lot of funny scenes (mostly involving Milla's antics) is the second movie by Greg Pritkin and his best. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes comedies of the Wes Anderson genre, i.e, either of The Darjeeling Limited or The royal Tenenbaums.....

It's painfully obvious that this is an indie movie. Not in a Juno/Garden State "I'm going to quirk you to death" kinda of way, but in that the story is not polished at all, there are a lot of loose ends that could have benefited from an extra scene or two, feels made for TV and is just plain blah. The idea was pretty neat, but there was absolutely no setup, and the only exposition to him wanting to get a dummy was him watching the movie at the very beginning.All that said, it had plenty of cute and enjoyable moments. The whole romantic aspect was good, and I liked Mila Jovavich's character, who was perfectly annoying. And I found Adrien Brody's character, and by extension the dummy, pretty interesting.

Greg Pritikin's "Dummy" kept reminding us about another film, "Napoleon Dynamite", in that both heroes of the films are kind souls that stick like sore thumbs in a society and films that are dominated by jerks and bullies. "Dummy" presents a family that doesn't appear to be too functional. Although there is a lack of eccentricity, Steven, is deemed too odd, by his sister, or the people he comes in contact with. Steven is a good soul trying to come to terms with life, in general. By deciding to become a ventriloquist, his inner self gets an outlet for expressing how he feels, but few, including his foul-mouthed friend, Fangora, understands him.When he meets the beautiful Lorena, who has processed his unemployment claim, Steven begins to chance and come out of his shell because of what he feels for the young woman who has had a hard life herself and is in need of a kind soul like Steven.The film will conquer anyone's heart because of the appealing performance of Adrien Brody. Vera Farmiga, as Lorena, fills the screen with her beauty and her common sense. Milla Jovovich is Fangora, the well intentioned friend with a motor mouth and a vocabulary to match. Ileana Douglas, Jessica Walter and Ron Leibman are seen as Steve's sister and parents respectively.No doubt Greg Pritikin will go to bigger and better things, but he is to be commended for creating a character of Steve, something one doesn't get to see much in the American cinema.

Writer/Director Greg Pritkin's formula for a brilliant comedy is so simple you wonder why it is not being widely copied. You write a quality screenplay, assemble an ensemble of very strong actors, turn this cast loose to slightly overplay each of your quirky characters, and find a quality editor to creatively assemble the film.Of course writing or finding a screenplay this good is not easy, nor is assembling a dream cast like this one. Getting Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Illeana Douglas, Vera Farmiga, and Jared Harris to play your five main characters is almost unparalleled. All are extremely strong actors who were attracted to this quirky project because Pritkin was willing to turn them loose to play off each other. Because each character in "Dummy" is at least slightly off-kilter these over-the-top performances achieve a wonderful balance.The cast has a Ukrainian favor, with Jovovich playing a hilarious role totally unlike anything you have seen from her (there are some similarities to her "Zoolander" character) and Farmiga who is fantastic as always. The "R" rating is solely due to Milla's language much of which is simply the funniest swearing in film history. Vera is absolutely fantastic as the guest at the family dinner table-less extreme yet funnier than the family dinner scene in the "The Nutty Professor". Jovovich's line about doing the "hora" refers to a dance frequently done at Jewish weddings. If you want to do it at your own wedding here are some instructions: 1. Stand in a circle holding the hands of the people on either side of you. 2. When the music starts, follow the circle as it rotates. 3. Step to the side, passing your left foot behind your right. 4. Move the right foot beside the left foot. 5. Step to the side again, passing your left foot in front of your right this time. 6. Continue as the circle keeps spinning, adding a little hop to your steps as you go faster. 7. Move toward the center of the circle and throw your hands, still holding those of the people beside you, in the air. 8. Lower your hands and move backward. 9. Repeat several times. 10. Resume spinning around the circle.