You have to ask yourself why a young filmmaker with a script but without backing from a major studio would write and direct a film that's totally devoid of any sense of surprise or original thought. I ask this because this effort is an example of independent film-making at it's worst because it's trying to gain an audience by going the easy route of being predictable. Story is about a totally pathetic loser named Steven (Adrien Brody) who's 28 and lives with his parents and one day decides to quit his loser job and become a ventriloquist.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Steven has one friend in the kooky and quirky Fangoria "Fanny" Gurkel (Milla Jovovich) who when she's not supporting Steven's job changes also sings in a garage band. Steven buys a dummy and practices at home which not only irritates his parents but his sister Heidi (Illeana Douglas) as well since she lives at home too. Steven goes to a temp service to try and get gigs as a ventriloquist and his case worker turns out to be a very pretty woman named Lorena (Vera Farmiga) and it takes some hard urging by Fanny to get him to talk to her. Even though Lorena had to call the cops on Steven for spray painting a message on her front door she eventually starts to date him but eventually it dawns on her that a relationship with someone like him wouldn't work out.
This is only the second feature from writer/director Greg Pritikin but you can't help but think he's made this for the sole reason of trying to get the attention of the Hollywood studios. On one hand his script is lukewarm and has has nothing special going for it but on the other hand Pritikin shows that as a director he can make a dumb romantic comedy as bad as the major studios can...and continue to do so! Everything in this script fails to be believable and the so-called romance between Brody and Farmiga is ridiculously preposterous especially considering the fact that she had to call the cops on him for his stupid shenanigans. Brody's character reeks with the term "stalker" but this film wants the audience to believe that not only would she date him but continue to laugh and giggle at everything he says! Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in "Gigli" had more chemistry on screen! With the exception of a few films Jovovich has been in more bad movies than I care to talk about and you can add this effort to her already laughable resume and one has to wonder if it's just poor choices or just accepting what little is offered to her. This film sat on the shelf for awhile until Brody won his Academy Award than it was released briefly in a few theaters (blink and you missed it) to try and cash in on his new found success but this is one of those half baked efforts that fails on practically every level.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Steven has one friend in the kooky and quirky Fangoria "Fanny" Gurkel (Milla Jovovich) who when she's not supporting Steven's job changes also sings in a garage band. Steven buys a dummy and practices at home which not only irritates his parents but his sister Heidi (Illeana Douglas) as well since she lives at home too. Steven goes to a temp service to try and get gigs as a ventriloquist and his case worker turns out to be a very pretty woman named Lorena (Vera Farmiga) and it takes some hard urging by Fanny to get him to talk to her. Even though Lorena had to call the cops on Steven for spray painting a message on her front door she eventually starts to date him but eventually it dawns on her that a relationship with someone like him wouldn't work out.
This is only the second feature from writer/director Greg Pritikin but you can't help but think he's made this for the sole reason of trying to get the attention of the Hollywood studios. On one hand his script is lukewarm and has has nothing special going for it but on the other hand Pritikin shows that as a director he can make a dumb romantic comedy as bad as the major studios can...and continue to do so! Everything in this script fails to be believable and the so-called romance between Brody and Farmiga is ridiculously preposterous especially considering the fact that she had to call the cops on him for his stupid shenanigans. Brody's character reeks with the term "stalker" but this film wants the audience to believe that not only would she date him but continue to laugh and giggle at everything he says! Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in "Gigli" had more chemistry on screen! With the exception of a few films Jovovich has been in more bad movies than I care to talk about and you can add this effort to her already laughable resume and one has to wonder if it's just poor choices or just accepting what little is offered to her. This film sat on the shelf for awhile until Brody won his Academy Award than it was released briefly in a few theaters (blink and you missed it) to try and cash in on his new found success but this is one of those half baked efforts that fails on practically every level.