Dedication

There’s not too much to hold against Dedication but there’s also not too much to distinguish it either. It’s quite a quintessential Sundance styled melancholy romance. Billy Crudup plays Henry, a neurotic, troubled children’s book writer with a nasty temper and a self-destructive impulse to push people away. Mandy Moore plays Lucy, the sweetheart who’s just goodhearted enough to chip away at Henry’s prickly persona and get him to open up. In this case, she’s being forced to work with him as an illustrator for his in-demand sequel to the children’s book The Christmas Dam about a rascally beaver named Marty. The conundrum is that Henry’s previous illustrator, the recently deceased Rudy (Tom Wilkinson), was also his only friend and the closest thing he’s ever had to a father figure, making Henry twice as defensive about anyone proposing to replace him.

The film starts off on the wrong note (with an extended setup of Henry and Rudy’s seedy misadventures), but eventually readjusts itself into a more suitably moody brooding boy meet girl romantic comedy. Those craving original characters and experimental filmmaking will scowl at the largely familiar character types here and their clichéd Garden State-esque dreary emotional problems. Anyone who’s not scared of a good indie cliché, though, will learn to see past the familiar façade and become fond of these likable characters. They are funny and sympathetic in ways that only characters in sweetheart romantic comedies ever really are, but that doesn’t stop them from being enjoyable. The screenplay has a lot of clever dialogue bolstered by great performances all around, particularly by Crudup who makes his cantankerous maniac lead character somehow seem sweet. At the very least, the movie features some great indie music (as every responsible Sundance fave seems to do lately), including memorable cues for songs by Deerhoof, Cat Power, and Joanna Newsom.

Grade: B