Dummy Reviews

Summary Steven Schoichet (Brody) 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. (Artisan Entertainment)

• Comedy

• Drama

• Romance

A romantic comedy of considerable charm and humor.

It's the details that make Dummy such a winner. By way of comparison, consider last summer's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," in which each actor put a heartfelt spin on his or her one-joke character (the father who believes that Windex cures everything). Well, here's an entire movie built on nuggets like that.

Jovovich needed a steadying hand to keep her from flying out of her socks, and Pritikin, on his maiden solo as a director, couldn't or didn't have the heart to provide it.

It's repetitive and obvious but somehow endearing, like a truly ugly dog with sweet eyes.

What could have been a biting dark comedy is, instead, uninspired and generic. The contrived, everybody's-happy finale just makes things worse.

Milla Jovovich, as Steven's Yiddish-spouting punk-rocker friend, is so bad, she's downright entertaining.

Serves up the sort of shrill ''satire'' of middle-class Jewish vulgarity in which the mere mention of words like ''brisket'' and ''klezmer'' is automatically presumed to be hilarious.

Adrien Brody and Milla Jovovich, "Dummy" is that special kind of indie comedy that knows how to perfectly balance its offbeat humor with just the right amount of dramatic intrigue.

While not a perfect film, I found myself really enjoying the early 2000s indie movie vibe quite a lot while watching Dummy. The script is funny, Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich and Vera Farmiga give surprisingly real and touching performances, the soundtrack is great and clever, and the movie captures the zeitgeist in a very unique and charming way. There is one groan worthy scene near the very end of the movie, but ultimately, I really did enjoy watching Dummy. I think you will too.