For his Oscar-winning role in 2002's "The Pianist" Adrien Brody mimicked the intense intricacies of Wladysaw Szpilman's piano playing.

Almost as impressive is the fact that earlier in the year he also did all of the physical and vocal ventriloquist work in "Dummy," but as the movie's recent DVD release indicates, the accolades and audience for "The Pianist" will likely never carry over to "Dummy."

Filmed and completed before "The Pianist," but released nationwide last September, Brody's ode to ventriloquism happens in the midst of a classically dysfunctional family.

Twenty-something Steven (Brody) is still living at home with his parents and feeling quite constricted by his nine-to-five office work. Joining in his misery is older sister Heidi (Illeana Douglas), a wedding planner who just broke off an engagement and also is still at home, which is controlled by their oblivious-to-the-world outside-of-model-warships father Lou (Ron Leibman) and shrill and dominating mother Fern (Jessica Walter).

As Heidi is burying herself further in despair thanks to a difficult wedding approaching, Steven becomes determined to break the cycle and buys a dummy in the hopes of becoming a ventriloquist in the vein of Edgar Bergen.

The highlights of the movie are watching Brody trying to learn the ropes of the dummy business and seeing his early struggles in contrast to his later mastery of the craft.

Brody clearly communicates the difference between good and bad ventriloquism with very slight adjustments in his work with the dummy.

The only flaw with the ventriloquist scenes is that Steven's unnamed dummy never picks up a strong enough personality. There are some sarcastic leanings, but the movie needed a a more solid and distinct character to carry the dummy-heavy scenes.

But that subtlety gains more appreciation when Fangora (Milla Jovovich) is on screen. If the B-movie inspired name and Ratt T-shirts don't get the point of the character across, Jovovich's unsolicited and frantic ranting make her aspiring punk rocker/muse and sounding board for Steven a loud interruption in the movie's fairly light tone.

And just when it seems that Fangora is destined for Steven, the movie thrusts the shy puppeteer at Lorena (Vera Farmagia), the employment agent with whom he first shared his dummy-filled dreams.

While the pair is a more natural combination, it kind of leaves Fangora twisting in the wind for the second half of the movie.The second half also is where things start to fall apart for the film.

Fangora somehow finds inspiration in becoming the replacement act for a Yiddish band, Heidi avoids the advances of her desperate ex-fiancee, and Steven and Lorena deal with the complications of their mismatched personalities all in the midst of a wedding that all the movie's major parties attend.

The ending and final act are way too O. Henry in execution as everything is wrapped up in an extremely convenient fashion. And the jammed together ending further puts the flaws of "Dummy" on display.

While there are a handful of comedic visuals (mostly involving Steven and his dummy), most of the movie's attempts at humor are forced, the movie's romance is a little hackneyed and outside of Brody, most of the cast gives performances below expectations.

And second-time director/first-time writer Greg Pritikin fills the movie with an absurd amount of Oliver Stone-esque shots that are unnecessary for a simple romantic comedy.

But simple isn't the first word that comes with the DVD extras. In one of the oddest commentaries ever attempted, award-winning ventriloquist Jeff Dunham brings his puppets Walter and Peanut in for a picture-in-picture commentary.

While the gimmick wears thin after a while, there are some choice lines spoken in puppet about the movie being released later to capitalize on Brody's success and questioning Bergen's sexuality.

If that wasn't weird enough, a deleted scene portrays Steven's nightmare of being controlled by his dummy. Thankfully, this scene was cut to prevent a further confusion of emotions for the movie.

And for those who can't resist the puppet life, there are a few tutorials on how to start a career in ventriloquism and some talk about the rigorous and odd lives of puppeteers.

If only the movie could have gone for the quirky tone of its extras, "Dummy" could have been more than a hollow effort.

"Dummy": C

DVD features: B,”Matthew T. Olson”

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