Smarter than the average doll

It's amazing what documentaries can do. They can paint a portrait of America's failing educational system (Waiting for Superman), reveal the horrors of dolphin hunting (The Cove) and give their audience a different view of the health-care system (Sicko).

With Dumbstruck, writer and director Mark Goffman adds one more to the list: This time, it's making ventriloquism extremely depressing.

The no-narration film follows about a year in the lives of five ventriloquists, who are each located somewhere on a wide spectrum of success and talent.

On one end is the now world-famous Terry Fator, winner of the second season of America's Got Talent and recent recipient of a $100 million deal with The Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas.

On the other end could be Dylan Burdette, a 13-year-old boy just beginning to hone his skill and take the art seriously, or Kim Yeager, a 31-year-old former beauty pageant contestant obsessed with creating a living for herself through ventriloquism.

Then there is Wilma Swartz, a 6-foot-5-inch woman filled with compassion and a love of making people laugh, and Dan Horn, a cruise ship performer referred to by many as the best puppet manipulator in the world.

There is something intrinsically enthralling about the movie, but it isn't the expected humor that comes with the territory of voice throwing and puppetry. Like any good documentary, Dumbstruck is lifted by the absolute emotional and career devastation each person encounters in front of the camera.

Truly, this film is a non-stop gantlet of unfulfilled dreams and broken relationships — even Fator recalls years of failure and the never-ending disapproval of his straight-ahead father.

Similarly, the young Burdette, who tries so hard to be "normal" and follow his dreams, continually encounters his father's barely-masked disdain of his hobby. It doesn't help that Burdette isn't particularly talented.

The issues these people have are too numerous to list: Some are nearly evicted from their homes, and others lose their families all together, for example. What makes the movie watchable is the fact that the ventriloquism community is the crutch that lifts these people up and gets them out of bed in the morning to face the day.

As Dumbstruck explains, these multifaceted characters could easily be found in a Christopher Guest film, with just as many funny and bizarre moments as cringe-worthy and downright sad ones.

Somehow, the film keeps up a relatively giddy feel throughout all the drama, leading up to the annual ventriloquist convention, where all the self-proclaimed "vents" get together to perform, share and just have a good time. The uplifting climax helps to tie together all the film's divergent stories.

Even though Goffman chose his subjects well, it's still hard to say that this film is anything close to a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking. It isn't that the topic is less intense and weighty than other movies in the genre and therefore less appealing.           

Overall, Dumbstruck is still quite engaging. The comparison between the loneliness of the "vents" and the very concept of these dolls that have no life without the help of another is a very intriguing concept.

Dumbstruck's biggest issue is its presentation. At best, the film feels like any standard TLC documentary programming or perhaps an episode of A&E's Hoarders. Again, this isn't really a bad thing, it's just that audiences will likely expect more from a motion picture than what could be found in an hour of television.

Aside from that, it's hard to grasp the point of the documentary. By the end, it seems like it would be easy to walk into any ventriloquist convention and find five interesting people to follow around with a camera. Other than Fator and Horn, who are both very successful, the ventriloquists lack a specific reason as to why they are included other than the fact that they were a different type of person.

In the end, there is no "a-ha!" moment or even an inkling of change; instead, as the stories of five people's lives are brought to a close, the only discernible message is that "venting" for a living is probably a bad decision.

It's hard to make a great documentary, but when dealing with real people, it usually isn't hard to grab an audience's attention. Although it's rough around the edges, Dumbstruck is definitely a film worth seeing, both for the comedy and the intense human drama.

It may be just one more documentary showing audiences one more aspect of life they have never cared to think about, but it works. Like any good act, it's hard to look away.

RATING: 3 stars out of 5

berman@umdbk.com