Customer Reviews

Dedication

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is not your standard romantic comedy. The DVD box wants you to believe it is, but anyone looking for something like "How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days" is sorely mistaken. "Dedication", is a beautiful and heartfelt film tho, Justin Theroux makes a sensational directing debut. Fine performances from the always great Billy Crudup and the sweetheart only known as Mandy Moore. This is a film about redemption, loss and healing. Two lost souls who manage to find each other. Great music, great visuals and good work from all supporting players (Tom Wilkinson, Dianne Wiest, Christine Taylor, Martin Freeman, Peter Bogdanovich) make this a neat little indie film to see.

a bit dark, a big uncooth and broken, but beautiful, shining nevertheless.
I'm hesitant to compare this film to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind. Still, it's very much that kind of genre. So if that's your thing, this movie will deliver in every possible way and throw you through an entire spectrum of emotion and then some. It's believable, original; and yet still, very magical. Don't be fooled by the bland cover art, it's fantastic.

I saw this movie in the theaters and had to buy the dvd. First of all, I love Mandy Moore and would buy anything with her in it. It's a romantic love story about a man with serious issues and he falls for Mandy. Very good.

Henry Roth (Billy Crudup) writes books for children all the while
suffering from the ramifications of a childhood with a missing father
and an abusive, probably violent, mother. He has a bit of an OCD
problem as well.

His mentor, best friend, and parent replacement, is Rudy Holt (Tom
Wilkinson), who illustrates Henry's books. When Rudy dies, Henry is
devastated. He keeps imagining seeing Rudy, thus continuing to let
'Rudy' tell him how to handle Life. Something Henry is not very good at
at his own.

He is teamed up by his publisher Planck (Bob Balaban) with a new
illustrator, Lucy (Mandy Moore). In the beginning, he treats her like
he would anybody else, which means mean, but it becomes very clear that
she is a nice person and quickly he begins to like her. But he doesn't
know how to break the habit of being strange and sarcastic. (Anybody
who's been shy and hurt knows that being rude or weird is a perfect way
to stay safe; to keep people away from the core).

Here is what he tells her in one long hilarious monologue which
conveyed by the brilliant Billy Crudup comes out exasperated,
hesitantly and too fast all at the same time and with a voice that is
nearly broken , due to the fact that he has realized that he's told her
far too much:

"I hate my mother I hate my goddamn dead father more, Rudy was the only
friend I ever had, I had a girlfriend once who I used to like to
masturbate to more than have sex with, carrots and snakes frighten me
um I'm superstitious about the numbers (3. 5. 7) I can only stir things
counter-clockwise and I know that if I don't something bad will happen,
I take a size 11 and a half shoe I don't have a favorite book, I don't
drive or ride in cars, statistically speaking you have a 100% chance of
being in an accident in your lifetime, they're death boxes, I give to
Amnesty International on the off chance that I'm ever imprisoned and
tortured for my political beliefs, paradoxically I have no political
beliefs, um Life is pain, black kids are cuter than white ones, I
didn't mean it when I compared you to our waitress I was only trying to
hurt you, I could've been meaner about your looks and what I would have
said would've made you cry, I have a towel I can't throw out because it
may have feelings, when I ejaculate I go into deep depressions, though
by any standard you're a nice person I deeply resent having to work
with you, I love Japanese monster movies, Gamera specifically.."

Ultimately, it's a love story told in a funny, quirky way and with
great performances by Billy Crudup, Tom Wilkinson, not to mention Bob
Balaban. Mandy Moore does a good job as well.

Yes, this is a romantic comedy. A romantic black comedy, but there are definitely elements of humor in it that any person will get. Your mother finding your vibrator, the classic "protagonist as an antagonist," and two people who loathe each other but truly have no reason to.

What some people might find unfavorable is the very bleak setting the movie has both visually and through both the writing and acting in the film. Not surprisingly, the hilarity of this film comes from the seemingly tragic moments. Billy Crudup as Henry Roth is excellent. Finally, a character within a romantic comedy who is multi-dimensional, interesting, and I absolutely hate him. He cures his fears by resting on his back and putting heavy objects on his chest. He is someone who has no stable ground, someone constantly floating away from where he wants to be, but he continues his current path because it's all he knows and all he's aware of. Rudy is his mentor and strangely both invites and rejects Henry's current situation. He's a successful author of children's books, but what does that mean if he can't make any human connection?

Mandy Moore surpised me as Lucy. At first she appeared a little too weak for Henry's character. The scene of them in the restaurant and Henry comparing Lucy to the waitress was so beautifully offensive that it offended me. But I think in that moment Lucy realized what she was working against and found that instead of being cruel to Henry (which is what he was used to), she would show him kindness instead. This is what was different about the film to me. A gut reaction from any human being in a moment like that is pure hatred, but Lucy took a different direction, and it was one that would change everything.

I think this is a film that gives great value to symbolism. The rock that Henry gives to Lucy was both adorable and insulting. It was something that he did for the dead as a sign of admiration and respect. It was a thoughtful gesture but... it was for the dead. And she kept the rock for what it meant to her. He asked her about it and she mentioned that it looked like there was a little person looking up against it on the inside. And it described Henry in a way. He gave her that most vulnerable part of himself: his constant feeling of entrapment and angst toward the world.

This film is not for those looking for a "feel good" comedy. This film makes you think about relationships and what they mean to each person. It makes you evaluate and is smartly done. It's the romantic comedy for those who hate romantic comedies.

Interesting big city tale with the great looking Mandy Moore, and Billy Crudup as a typically messed up writer. A rich writer, which they don't tell you, but you have to deduct by his posessions. The storyline is sometimes a little hard to follow as to why he or she did what, but it is sometimes fun and also sometimes sad, and sometimes stupid. Not really believeable, but what is funny is how Mandy in real life married a guy 2 years later, who in someways, is like Billys character type. I guess the power of love links strange mates at times. Good acting by all in it.

This romance has a hero who is edgier than most and not very likable on the surface. Little by little, he starts to get under your skin until you are hooked, even though he seems determined to sabotage the whole thing. Very well acted and written.

Well directed, well written and well acted. There's a humor in the story that isn't common. This film is a sleeper. One person will watch it and dismiss it as just another romantic comedy, and another will see it for what it actually is: multiple talents working together to create an excellent movie. Loved it.

Billy Crudup plays Henry Roth, a children's writer who isn't sure what his next steps in life are. He is OCD and extremely cautious. He fears cars and isn't crazy about sex. He likes Japanese Monster films and harbors ill feelings for certain people in his life, especially women. Basically the only the he trusts is his illustrator (played by Tom Wilkinson) who dies right before their next book is supposed to be published.

This is where Lucy Reilly (played by Mandy Moore) comes in as a young illustrator on an emotional run from her ex-boyfriend/college adviser. She becomes Henry's illustrator and some where along the way we get hints as to why Henry is "screwed up" and the two fall in love. This is not a romantic comedy (even though it's listen in that drama). It is a story about two very real people and the importance of trust ... and how it must develop somehow before love does.

This story gets a four because it wasn't PERFECT but worth watching more than once. I was very excited to find that Mandy Moore didn't play her usual innocent and boring "good girl" role. But while she does deliver, don't expect anything fantastic. Of course Billy Crudup conveys his character beautifully.

It's rare very rare in these days to explore forgiveness and grace when you are speaking of romance. The persona of both the main characters in the love interest here Mandy Moore and Bill Cudrup are excellent choices by the casting crew.

Both of them are extremely suited for their roles, Bill Cudrup as the product of a typical abusive childhood and Mandy Moore as the product of a "normal" childhood. Immediately the audience can relate to two personal emotions in this romance, frustrated manhood for Henry Roth (Cudrup) and unrequited love for any young woman Lucy Reilly(Moore) great hair. Cudrup is great because even if he is socially handicapped he remains attractive (think James Dean) and Moore is of course the wonderful girl next door.

The antiheroes that keep popping up are the alter egos of Bill's character and Mandy's old rotten boyfriend Jeremy. The ex boyfriend Jeremy is everyone's ex boyfriend who could not or would not be the man he was meant to be. Jeremy keeps for selfish reasons trying to get back to the place he was before, proving that brilliance as a writer does not make you smart or likeable. Lucy Reilly has moments with her overanxious and over bearing mother played quite convincingly (dianne Weist)and with perfect timing. Through the interestind scenes all Lucy never loses her ability to love or to maintain her own dignity more importantly her sense of self in the plot. It is not cloying but timely, and you can see how the lovers begin to long for each other as they walk into their love scenes. Even without overt chemistry but with thorough acting they accomplish a believable romance between Henry and Lucy.

Although the movie is rated R it is thankfully not for explicit sexual content but more for foul language.

Yes there is still for many people a sense of propriety. You can look at romance as something that happens between two people or you can choose to look at it as something that happens on a much higher level. It is the level just above the heart, the one that chooses to be good for another person as the expense of ones self. You can easily and naturally see this in Mandy Moore's character which attracts men to her like a magnet, and you can see it in Bill Cudrup as he dares to leave his mental obsessiveness for the one love he "can" long for.

The only people that could hate this movie are the ones that have been made perfectly cynical by life. Given the crude nature of romance in Hollywood these days it is not suprising that this was not much bigger at the box office the sound track is very well done for anyone in their 20's. It's Hollywoods loss, and highly recommended.