In which a ventriloquist's dummy is creepy for one scene and a ventriloquist is creepy for most.
Director: Greg Pritikin
Writer: Greg Pritikin
Cast: Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Vera Farmiga, Illeana Douglas, Jessica Walter, Ron Liebman, Jared Harris
Runtime: 91 mins.
2002
More than anything, Dummy feels like a movie that is unstuck from reality. Temporally speaking, there is little to suggest that the movie was released in 2002. The protagonist is the sort of bumbling man-child living-with-his-parents figure to whom we've grown accustomed in the late 00s and early 10s, but Brody plays the character with a docile earnestness that feels more at home in the 50s. The broad, almost interesting yet still firmly conservative nature of the comedy feels more at home in the 90s, when that sort of thing proliferated. The punk rock sensibilities and screw-the-man attitude displayed by Milla Jovovich's character (and sometimes the movie's tone) are ripped straight from the 80s, while some of the outfits--namely those of Illeana Douglas's character--make you want to sigh, "That's the 70s for you." Cover all this over with a simultaneous love for old-fashioned 20s (or 50s) showmanship and 30s (or 60s) deconstruction of said showmanship, and you get what amounts to a weird niche 2002 comedy picture about an awkward fellow and the dummy that he uses to try to get laid, though the movie would never be so courageous as to put it in those terms.
You can call me out on my awfully vague characterizations of decades that I didn't live through, but the point stands that Dummy suffers from what you could call a confused identity.
Since most of you have likely never heard of this film, as I hadn't until the night I watched it, a short summary is probably in order. Dummy begins with Steven (Adrien Brody), a twenty-something loser with an office job he doesn't care about, purchasing a ventriloquist dummy. Although he never says so explicitly (or says much of anything, for that matter), we surmise that he has acquired said dummy to force himself into some modicum of personal expression. After all, he is living with his domineering family, a pair of eccentric parents (Jessica Walter and Ron Leibman) and his willful sister (Illeana Douglas) never letting him get a word in edgewise. Through a series of awkward social interactions, Steven quits his job, attempts to pursue a career in joblessness ventriloquism, and tries to catch the eye of his friendly unemployment consultant Lorena (Vera Farmiga). Steven's antics are made all the more zany by the influence of Fangora (Milla Jovovich), his punk rock best friend and the antithesis to his meek demeanor. The movie ends at a wedding. It's someone else's wedding. Don't worry, it's not important.
My experience watching Dummy was as schizophrenic as the movie's temporal identity. The simplest way for me to describe it is to split it in half: the first half, which contains a surprising number of small delights and quirks, and the second half, when all of it degenerates into a slurry of derivative Hallmark nonsense.
Let's start with the pleasantly surprising half. I enjoyed watching the cast, a charmful ensemble that is at once unexpected and completely typical. We have Jessica Walter doing her doting, overbearing mother schtick that Arrested Development and Archer have made us overly familiar with. Meanwhile, it is strange to watch Milla Jovovich play a role in which she is not required to kill zombies. And we also get to see Jared Harris not be super creepy not play a sociopath do exactly what he always does, except less good. Finally, we get a young Adrien Brody.
As someone who watched The Pianist only weeks before Dummy, I was in a unique position to judge Brody's range. He generally plays the same type of tortured introvert, but he really somersaulted deep into his own psyche for Dummy. That isn't to suggest that the Steven character is especially complex, but rather that this guy is the definition of a lump completely lacking in dynamism or social skills. That's how the character is written, and Brody plays it well. This is evidenced in the dummy work, which the end credits boast was performed live entirely by Adrien Brody. That's cool, although the ventriloquism itself is rather shoddy. I would imagine Brody makes it deliberately average though--it fits well with the character. Steven's astounding mediocrity is almost charming.
That's a good word for the first half of Dummy: charming. Steven's enthusiasm for the dummy is real, simple, and honest. The love for the craft on display is most of what gives Dummy its limited personality. Aside from that, the front half of the film benefits greatly from some rather savvy editing. Scenes last only long enough to communicate a character quirk or strange situation before quick cuts advance us to new oddball scenarios. The editing keeps a swift pace and does a lot of work towards keeping our attention on Steven's world, which seems to be slightly askew to the feel-good comedy worlds we are used to.
Then the movie implodes, revealing itself to be the pandering drivel it pretended for so long not to be. About halfway through the film, the snapshots of weirdness are flattened out into draggy melodrama, myopic character motivations become stand-ins for real characters, and even Brody's Steven becomes kind of insufferable. It's like Pritikin decided that once the film's identity was established, the rest would take care of itself with minimal effort.
Every movie is its own universe. Therefore, every movie needs to teach its audience the rules for how they should be watching it. These rules aren't set in stone, of course--some rules are introduced just so they can be broken. That's one source of drama. Each film must establish its universe and that universe's rules, which is why beginnings are so important. What that means, though, is that sometimes you don't realize right away when a movie is fundamentally wrong in some way. It's a slow burn, a kind of sick feeling; as your excitement ebbs away, you realize no substance is there to replace it, and you are left with the hollowness of disappointment. This is the experience of watching Dummy. Not since, I don't know, Rubber has my investment in a movie dissolved so completely halfway through. It usually isn't one moment or one scene that does it. It's more of an onslaught of mediocrity. Missed opportunities compound upon missed opportunities until the aberration must be recognized as the norm.
If I were to pinpoint one aspect of Dummy that stands in for the shifting energy of the film, it would be the roles of Fangora and Lorena, and how their respective prominence shifts.
Fangora is Steven's best friend. She has attention issues, anger issues, control issues--she basically broadcasts all of the issues that Steven bottles up deep inside himself. As such, they are sort of a hoot to watch together. Jovovich's performance is far from subtle, but her manically wandering limbs and involuntarily foul mouth are believable. Her character also provides the oomph that propels Steven through the movie. She forces him into idiotic actions with significant consequences. Once she learns that he has a crush on Lorena, Fangora bullies Steven into leaving a "romantic" spraypainted thank you note all over Lorena's front door. This, of course, wins Steven a restraining order, delivered to him while he is sitting in his underwear, dummy in hand, with his entire family watching. The entire sequence makes you cringe like the dickens, but at least it feels fresh. Fangora is interesting. She provides the beating heart of this movie in a way that Steven cannot.
And then there's Lorena, the love interest. Everything about her is far too nice. Too perfect. She's the dream girl. She spends entire scenes doing nothing more than smiling, looking pretty, and offering vague encouragement to Steven. It's kind of disgusting. This is not a person. It's not even a character. There's no arc here other than the shift from Liking Steven But Not Smooching Him to Liking Steven And Smooching Him. She delivers lines like, "No, I think it's totally cool that you live with your folks," completely without irony. She seems to exist solely to stroke Steven's ego and make him feel good about his sensitivity (read: joblessness). In my estimation, she has one honest, real person moment in the film, and that was the issuing of the restraining order. A restraining order that is promptly violated by Steven in the form of a video tape of him and his dummy apologizing to her for their awkward stalking. Instead of popping in the tape and promptly calling the police, she watches Steven's antics with a huge grin on her face, and decides to ask him out on a date (to which he arrives with dummy in tow).
In case it wasn't clear from the previous paragraph, this is not okay. The casual whisking away of textbook stalker behavior, including the defiance of an actual legal restraining order delivered by a policeman... is unnerving, to say the least. It's an apology for illegal, unhealthy, and damaging behavior made all the worse by Lorena's mindless complicity in Steven's actions. People watching this movie will take away the following moral: "If they're not into me, I'm obviously not trying hard enough!" The movie is playing into the cycle of abusive relationships that it supposedly decries through Steven's sister's alcoholic ex-boyfriend Michael (Jared Harris). In the end, at the wedding, as everybody is in the midst of receiving their incredibly cliche happy endings, Michael shows up and starts bullying Heidi (the sister). Then he whips out a gun for some reason and Steven has to save the day with his ventriloquism powers (but actually). He sends Michael and his (spoiler alert: fake) gun packing. Happy endings abound, right? Smooching and such? But then the final scene shows Michael seeking and finding solace in Fangora, who bumps into him outside of the wedding. She missed all the action so she doesn't know he's a sociopath, and he seems kind of sensitive and cool to her. They're really hitting it off. And we cut to black.
Wait... what?
I was stunned as I watched the credits roll. I do believe the movie just suggested that Michael and Fangora were going to be a couple, and that this was a good, happy thing, despite Michael's prominent history of abusing every woman he comes into contact with. This is irresponsible filmmaking to the max.
Keeping all that in mind (Fangora: compelling--Lorena: dangerously insipid), it makes a whole lot of sense that the movie tanks when Lorena becomes more prominent and Fangora simultaneously fades into the background. Steven and Fangora have a falling out about halfway through that has to do with him spending time with Lorena, and Fangora essentially disappears from the movie after that. What a waste of a superior character. In retrospect, the movie mistreats Fangora horribly, utilizing her as little more than a gateway that Steven uses to get to Lorena. By the end, Fangora is a non-factor, actually reduced to singing in the background as the real dramatic action plays out in front of her. The movie never recovers from this loss. Fangora, being the most interesting part of the movie, the frayed loose end that did not fit in with the family-friendly format, is also the piece of the movie that must be expelled for the classic Hollywood happy ending to achieve full penetration.
If it sounds like I'm being harsh, that's because I am. If the movie was up-front crap it would have been one thing, but Dummy is a film with a lot of promise. At the beginning, when the world is new, Dummy has a voice that is almost unique and nearly compelling. It squanders that voice.* The film's apology for backward masculinity amounts to a brand of sexism that not only makes for an unhealthy message, but actually harms the film itself on the level of plot and drama. At first I was unexpectedly delighted by Dummy's tiny absurdities. By the end I was depressed and dejected, the exact opposite of the film's happy-endings-all-around intention. I would make a punny joke about who the real dummy is, but like the movie itself I fear it would take me to a darker place than could have possibly been intended.
1.5 / 5 BLOBS
That's a good word for the first half of Dummy: charming. Steven's enthusiasm for the dummy is real, simple, and honest. The love for the craft on display is most of what gives Dummy its limited personality. Aside from that, the front half of the film benefits greatly from some rather savvy editing. Scenes last only long enough to communicate a character quirk or strange situation before quick cuts advance us to new oddball scenarios. The editing keeps a swift pace and does a lot of work towards keeping our attention on Steven's world, which seems to be slightly askew to the feel-good comedy worlds we are used to.
Then the movie implodes, revealing itself to be the pandering drivel it pretended for so long not to be. About halfway through the film, the snapshots of weirdness are flattened out into draggy melodrama, myopic character motivations become stand-ins for real characters, and even Brody's Steven becomes kind of insufferable. It's like Pritikin decided that once the film's identity was established, the rest would take care of itself with minimal effort.
Every movie is its own universe. Therefore, every movie needs to teach its audience the rules for how they should be watching it. These rules aren't set in stone, of course--some rules are introduced just so they can be broken. That's one source of drama. Each film must establish its universe and that universe's rules, which is why beginnings are so important. What that means, though, is that sometimes you don't realize right away when a movie is fundamentally wrong in some way. It's a slow burn, a kind of sick feeling; as your excitement ebbs away, you realize no substance is there to replace it, and you are left with the hollowness of disappointment. This is the experience of watching Dummy. Not since, I don't know, Rubber has my investment in a movie dissolved so completely halfway through. It usually isn't one moment or one scene that does it. It's more of an onslaught of mediocrity. Missed opportunities compound upon missed opportunities until the aberration must be recognized as the norm.
If I were to pinpoint one aspect of Dummy that stands in for the shifting energy of the film, it would be the roles of Fangora and Lorena, and how their respective prominence shifts.
Fangora is Steven's best friend. She has attention issues, anger issues, control issues--she basically broadcasts all of the issues that Steven bottles up deep inside himself. As such, they are sort of a hoot to watch together. Jovovich's performance is far from subtle, but her manically wandering limbs and involuntarily foul mouth are believable. Her character also provides the oomph that propels Steven through the movie. She forces him into idiotic actions with significant consequences. Once she learns that he has a crush on Lorena, Fangora bullies Steven into leaving a "romantic" spraypainted thank you note all over Lorena's front door. This, of course, wins Steven a restraining order, delivered to him while he is sitting in his underwear, dummy in hand, with his entire family watching. The entire sequence makes you cringe like the dickens, but at least it feels fresh. Fangora is interesting. She provides the beating heart of this movie in a way that Steven cannot.
And then there's Lorena, the love interest. Everything about her is far too nice. Too perfect. She's the dream girl. She spends entire scenes doing nothing more than smiling, looking pretty, and offering vague encouragement to Steven. It's kind of disgusting. This is not a person. It's not even a character. There's no arc here other than the shift from Liking Steven But Not Smooching Him to Liking Steven And Smooching Him. She delivers lines like, "No, I think it's totally cool that you live with your folks," completely without irony. She seems to exist solely to stroke Steven's ego and make him feel good about his sensitivity (read: joblessness). In my estimation, she has one honest, real person moment in the film, and that was the issuing of the restraining order. A restraining order that is promptly violated by Steven in the form of a video tape of him and his dummy apologizing to her for their awkward stalking. Instead of popping in the tape and promptly calling the police, she watches Steven's antics with a huge grin on her face, and decides to ask him out on a date (to which he arrives with dummy in tow).
In case it wasn't clear from the previous paragraph, this is not okay. The casual whisking away of textbook stalker behavior, including the defiance of an actual legal restraining order delivered by a policeman... is unnerving, to say the least. It's an apology for illegal, unhealthy, and damaging behavior made all the worse by Lorena's mindless complicity in Steven's actions. People watching this movie will take away the following moral: "If they're not into me, I'm obviously not trying hard enough!" The movie is playing into the cycle of abusive relationships that it supposedly decries through Steven's sister's alcoholic ex-boyfriend Michael (Jared Harris). In the end, at the wedding, as everybody is in the midst of receiving their incredibly cliche happy endings, Michael shows up and starts bullying Heidi (the sister). Then he whips out a gun for some reason and Steven has to save the day with his ventriloquism powers (but actually). He sends Michael and his (spoiler alert: fake) gun packing. Happy endings abound, right? Smooching and such? But then the final scene shows Michael seeking and finding solace in Fangora, who bumps into him outside of the wedding. She missed all the action so she doesn't know he's a sociopath, and he seems kind of sensitive and cool to her. They're really hitting it off. And we cut to black.
Wait... what?
I was stunned as I watched the credits roll. I do believe the movie just suggested that Michael and Fangora were going to be a couple, and that this was a good, happy thing, despite Michael's prominent history of abusing every woman he comes into contact with. This is irresponsible filmmaking to the max.
Keeping all that in mind (Fangora: compelling--Lorena: dangerously insipid), it makes a whole lot of sense that the movie tanks when Lorena becomes more prominent and Fangora simultaneously fades into the background. Steven and Fangora have a falling out about halfway through that has to do with him spending time with Lorena, and Fangora essentially disappears from the movie after that. What a waste of a superior character. In retrospect, the movie mistreats Fangora horribly, utilizing her as little more than a gateway that Steven uses to get to Lorena. By the end, Fangora is a non-factor, actually reduced to singing in the background as the real dramatic action plays out in front of her. The movie never recovers from this loss. Fangora, being the most interesting part of the movie, the frayed loose end that did not fit in with the family-friendly format, is also the piece of the movie that must be expelled for the classic Hollywood happy ending to achieve full penetration.
If it sounds like I'm being harsh, that's because I am. If the movie was up-front crap it would have been one thing, but Dummy is a film with a lot of promise. At the beginning, when the world is new, Dummy has a voice that is almost unique and nearly compelling. It squanders that voice.* The film's apology for backward masculinity amounts to a brand of sexism that not only makes for an unhealthy message, but actually harms the film itself on the level of plot and drama. At first I was unexpectedly delighted by Dummy's tiny absurdities. By the end I was depressed and dejected, the exact opposite of the film's happy-endings-all-around intention. I would make a punny joke about who the real dummy is, but like the movie itself I fear it would take me to a darker place than could have possibly been intended.
1.5 / 5 BLOBS
*If you want to watch something that captures what Dummy could have been if it were its best possible self, watch the ventriloquism documentary Her Master's Voice. Ventriloquist Nina Conti explores her art form while coming to terms with the death of her mentor. Profound, entertaining stuff. It's on Netflix.
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