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DUMMY

Dummy is hardly a major indie film, but getting it for opening night is quite a coup for the first annual Independent Film Festival of Boston. In his first starring role since his Oscar-winning performance in The Pianist, Adrien Brody is pretty decent, and very different, as the shy, pale, passive, and probably virginal Steven. This post-Graduate Jewish nebbish lives at home with his abrasive parents (played loudly by a funny pairing of Ron Leibman and Jessica Walter) and his unhappy unmarried sister (played with scene-stealing aplomb by the engaging Illeana Douglas). After seeing Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy on TV, Steven ditches his 9-to-5 electronics job and purchases a dimple-chinned ventriloquist’s dummy; but his little friend becomes a total crutch, carried on Steven’s arm wherever he goes, including on several wobbly dates with Lorena (Vera Farmiga), a woman from the unemployment office. Will Steven ever grow up, be assertive, be a mensch? While you wait to find out, writer/filmmaker Greg Pritikin gives you a lot of oddball characters to contemplate (including Milla Jovovich as his best friend), and at least one hilarious scene, when Steven brings his new goy girlfriend home to dinner at his crazy Jewish household. (90 minutes)

BY GERALD PEARY

Issue Date: April 25 - May 1, 2003
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