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Reviewed by Elliot V. Kotek 
(from its world premiere at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival)

Director/Writer: Mark Goffman
Starring: Terry Fator, Dylan Burdette, Dan Horn, Wilma Swartz, Kim Yeager

Better known for his penmanship of episodic television (“The West Wing,” “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), Mark Goffman makes his featuredocumentary directorial debut following five ventriloquists in a one-year period between annual Vent Haven conventions in Fort Mitchell, Ky., the “Ventriloquism Capital of the World.”

United by their dreams of making a living from their unique branch of entertainment, the five subjects of the film – whose website notes “were quirky enough to star in Christopher Guest’s ‘Best in Show’” – are Kim Yeager, a 31-year-old former Miss Ohio who used ventriloquism as her pageant talent; Dan Horn, a cruise ship entertainer and noted puppet manipulator; Dylan Burdette, a 13-year-old Kentucky kid who looks like Paul Dano in “Little Miss Sunshine”; Wilma Swartz, a 6-foot-5-inch female former security guard whose passion for ventriloquism has her a thousand dollars away from homelessness; and Terry Fator, a dreamer from Texas whose rise to victory on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” has since landed him a lucrative contract in the lap of Las Vegas.

Along his unobtrusive journey, Goffman reveals some interesting traits about this group of “vents,” most notably a commonality of shyness that prevails among them despite their status as entertainers. When one of the talking heads explains that ventriloquists are people who talk to themselves and play with dolls for a living, it seems to sum up the social ineptitude lying beneath the surface for many of the film’s subjects.

Another similarity is that those who support the ventriloquists – parents, family, friends – often wish the performer would choose some other line of work.

The exception to all others in the film is the 42-year-old Fator, who not only seems to have the support of his wife, sister and mother but also had the requisite extroversion to get on national television, and for whom lightning struck in the form of a million-dollar winner’s check and a place on the marquee at The Mirage hotel.

An interesting note regarding the behind-the-scenes team credited on the project is the presence of producers Elon Musk (co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors) and David O. Sacks. Both Musk and Sacks were listed as producers on Palm Springs award-recipientJason Reitman’s much-lauded debut feature “Thank You for Smoking.”

Sequined shirts, stuffed dummies and an 83-minute running time all conspire to make “Dumbstruck” an enjoyable experience. And, although the focus on the core emotions and experiences of the performers rather than the comedy makes the film feel a little wooden at times, Goffman succeeds in painting curiously engaging portraits. You could say that, by allowing us to see these people at work, he’s giving them an opportunity to vent.