Dummy

Steven Schoichet (Adrien Brody) is, possibly, even more socially-retarded than I am, and the only way he manages to overcome his anxiety is by living vicariously through...his ventriloquist dummy. Steven falls head-over-heels in love with Lorena Fanchetti (Vera Farmiga), but finds himself only able to interact with her through his nameless dummy.

Steven quits his job and meets Lorena at the unemployment offices; Lorena is an employment counsellor, and, in reacting with such ease to Steven's revelation that he's a ventriloquist, she becomes the first person in Steven's life to offer him any support.

While Steven has a near run-in with Lorena on the street, and his best friend Fangora (Milla Jovovich) then stalks her to gather information on her, he finds himself having trouble speaking to her when she phones to tell him about a job opportunity. He's only able to respond to her, even over the phone, by pretending that it's his dummy speaking, removing himself from the situation as much as possible.

Fangora convinces Steven that it would be a good, and romantic, idea to bring Lorena flowers...at 3am. And spray paint "I owe you one" in red on her front door. This (surprisingly) results in a restraining order. Fangora, always with ideas, decides to videotape an apology from Steven, which is...terribly strange, and only saved by the presence of the dummy. Through his video apology, Steven, shockingly, manages to win Lorena over, and she drops the restraining order, and grows so enamored of Steven that her bitter loneliness is made all too clear.

The dummy manages to convince Lorena to meet him and Steven for coffee, and she spends the majority of their date speaking directly to the dummy rather than Steven. As his act continues to get better, it grows more believable that Lorena could be so greatly won over by the back-and-forth between Steven and his dummy; it's all about confidence.

Lorena reveals her own issues in describing her former fiancé, telling Steven that he had died crossing the street on the way to their ceremony. Steven manages to diffuse the awkwardness of the situation, and snags a second date. Unfortunately, his family is present for it, so, already it's terrible.

Even though Steven's family is terribly inarticulate and difficult to deal with, Steven is able to continue winning Lorena over by having his dummy speak to, and entertain, Lorena's daughter Bonnie.

Lorena enjoys spending time with Steven despite his family, which is extremely fortunate for him, because they're clearly the reason he's so screwed up. A big part of the attraction is, probably, because Lorena feels that he's extremely safe and won't hurt her because he wouldn't know how to. Personally, I would be worried that he would murder me and turn my corpse into the dummy's bride, but I'm also not dating Adrien Brody, so...

Steven and the dummy have a private fireworks show for Lorena and Bonnie on the fourth of July...or, try to, anyway, but it becomes a funny moment in their past saved by the actual fireworks display that shows up moments later.

Steven is such a damaged character that he could only fit with someone like Lorena, herself damaged; unfortunately, Lorena's the kind of character that could be repaired through either the intervention of a great personality that can change her life for the better, or through someone like Steven, who she needs to help save, and will, in turn, save her.

Unfortunately, in a tense moment of silence between Lorena, Steven, and his dummy, Lorena realizes that it's all too much for her -- she's been saved through having known Steven and his dummy, and she needs to move on with her life now or get dragged down into the pit that is Steven's life. In order for Steven to move on with his life, he's forced to abandon his dummy and grow up, and it becomes a choice of whether he'll continue to follow his dream of ventriloquism, which greatly helped him come out of his shell, or if he's going to take what he's learned and become the man that Lorena needs him to be.

In selling his dummy, Steven manages to be everything that Lorena doesn't need, and it's only when he's gotten it back and learned to follow his bliss that he finally finds the confidence to be the man he's always wanted to be, and the man that Lorena needs in her life.

Both Steven and Lorena learned a lot from one another, both about who they are as individuals and who they can be with someone that believes in them. While their rocky start was at times unbelievable, I can understand the attraction to one another's charms, and I imagine that the two of them have lasted far beyond the credits and helped to build a life together that was far beyond what either of them would have dreamed before having met each other.