Dedication (2007)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Wildaly M

  
  Good rom-com. Not convincing enough for me to give it a higher rating but at least there were no regrets after watching it.

• Steven C

  
  I really enjoy Justin Theroux's "Dedication", it's an affecting film with an oddball romance in the middle. While the film is certainly stylish, it is also deeply human. Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore are wonderful here, inhabiting complicated characters with ease.… More
  I really enjoy Justin Theroux's "Dedication", it's an affecting film with an oddball romance in the middle. While the film is certainly stylish, it is also deeply human. Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore are wonderful here, inhabiting complicated characters with ease. Tom Wilkinson is just as great and his scenes with Crudup are standouts. Accompanied by a soundtrack that supports the narrative as much as the performances and dialogue do, "Dedication" is a "indie" film that never seems pretentious and has real, contagious emotion.

• Alice S

  
  Crudup is nutty, disturbed, and endearing as Henry Roth. There's something I can't pinpoint about Mandy Moore's performance. I wouldn't say she was phoning it in, not even that; it's as if she was texting, faxing, and bluetoothing it in. Trying so hard but… More
  Crudup is nutty, disturbed, and endearing as Henry Roth. There's something I can't pinpoint about Mandy Moore's performance. I wouldn't say she was phoning it in, not even that; it's as if she was texting, faxing, and bluetoothing it in. Trying so hard but nothing coming out. In the end, I have to say it's Henry's story. Lucy had no personality at all and because she had no likable or unlikable qualities, the arc of the romance went too fast.

• Lorenzo v

  
  This was a surprise. I bought this film expecting an average love story with clichéd scenarios and cheesy dialogue. Well, it turns out I loved this film a lot and I can't believe I'm saying this, Mandy Moore was great in this. I'm kinda partial with singers turning into… More
  This was a surprise. I bought this film expecting an average love story with clichéd scenarios and cheesy dialogue. Well, it turns out I loved this film a lot and I can't believe I'm saying this, Mandy Moore was great in this. I'm kinda partial with singers turning into actors so I'm not really a fan of the thing but Mandy Moore in this film is an exception. She was great, I love her. She's not like those other singer-turned-actors who has only one expression in their face and it never changes throughout the film. Like Norah Jones in 'Blueberry Nights' and all those rappers in gangster films. She was pretty good here. Her leading man is Billy Crudup. I can describe him in one word: Phenomenal. He plays Henry Roth (50 First Dates homage?) a neurotic, eccentric, crazy, wacky children's books author who dislikes driving a car and likes to get his chest splotched by a stack of books. He reminds me of Woody Allen's character in "Annie Hall" They are very much similar. They're both neurotic, they both look like they'll break down in a jiffy and they both dislike driving. Fantastic. This is the director's excellent directorial debut. The dialogue was great it contains some very memorable lines, the chemistry between Mandy Moore and Billy Crudup sticks with you like super glue, the acting is superb (Tom Wilkinson huzzah) and the cinematography is better than awesome. The editing: magnifique. "Dedication" is a 4.5/5

• Manu G

  
  Well it's a decent movie, but I liked it very much, I felt a very good acting portrayal by Billy Crudup. Henry Roth is messed up. A New York children's book author who tells kids that Santa doesn't exist, he hates sleeping with and next to- anyone, including his… More
  Well it's a decent movie, but I liked it very much, I felt a very good acting portrayal by Billy Crudup. Henry Roth is messed up. A New York children's book author who tells kids that Santa doesn't exist, he hates sleeping with and next to- anyone, including his girlfriend and must lay on the floor, usually with heavy objects on top of him just to feel safe. His motto is "Life is nothing but the occasional burst of laughter rising above the interminable wail of grief." "Dedication," a modern love story in which a misanthropic, emotionally complex author of a hit children's book series is forced to team with a beautiful illustrator after his best friend and creative collaborator passes away marks the directorial debut of Justin Theroux. As Henry struggles with letting go of the ghosts of love and life, he discovers that maybe all it takes is a little dedication.

• William D

  
  [size=3]"Dedication" stars [b]Billy Crudup[/b], one of my favorite actors. I'm still astonished that he doesn't have more of a reputation. His co-star is [b]Mandy Moore[/b], who is striving to be taken more seriously, which I'm not sure she deserves.[/size]… More
  [size=3]"Dedication" stars [b]Billy Crudup[/b], one of my favorite actors. I'm still astonished that he doesn't have more of a reputation. His co-star is [b]Mandy Moore[/b], who is striving to be taken more seriously, which I'm not sure she deserves.[/size] [img]http://www.culture-cafe.net/images/medium_dedication.jpg[/img] [size=3]The director is [b]Justin Theroux[/b], whose performance in "Mulholland Drive" (as a film director no less) I still see in my mind's eye from time to time. Theroux here is making his directorial debut. Let's just say that I'm certain he'll be remembered more as an actor than a director. He seems to have two sides: one is a sharp, intense, original artist, and one is a purveyor of mainstream trifles for the multiplex crowd.[/size] [size=3]One could say that the casting choices emblematize this bifurcation. Crudup was cast from the artist side of Theroux's mind, and Moore was selected by the side that enjoys the David Letterman Show (and probably yearns to be a guest on it).[/size] [size=3]"Dedication" is at heart a very conventional love story. The structure of the story is the same old formula of Boy is Lonely, Boy Meets Girl, Boy Scares Girl Away, Boy Wins Girl Back. Yawn. What makes it slightly different here is that the protagonists are artistic intellectuals of the bohemian sort and not part of the multiplex culture whatsoever. But it's almost like Theroux is designing a new world at Disney Land, which will be called Bohemian New York World. Oh, look kids, there's a cafe; let's order a cappucino. Oh, look, there's someone reading Dostoyevsky! It's so New York![/size] [size=3]Moore's character is getting a doctorate in Literature and her boyfriend is a renowned expert on Romanticism. Crudup plays a writer of children's books who is intensely cynical and nearly vomits whenever he gets close to any of his readers. He's also petrified of riding in cars and can only sleep on floors because beds cause him too much anxiety. I was pleased that Crudup plays this anxiety-drenched soul rather intensely. He definitely plays it for laughs from time to time, but there is also a serious undertone. A couple of times it's hinted that he was savagely beaten by his mother as a child. There's certainly no humor in that. [/size] [size=3]But every time the film gets serious or deep, it quickly comes to its senses and gets back to a level of shallowness appropriate for the multiplex crowd. There are a few scenes with rapier-like, philosophically sophisticated repartee between Crudup and his best friend, played by [b]Tom Wilkinson[/b]. But these scenes stand in stark contrast to most of the dialogue in the film.[/size] [size=3]I don't understand this abiding tendency toward superficiality and mainstream acceptability. What was Theroux hoping, that this would be 2007's "Little Miss Sunshine"? Perhaps. But "Dedication" doesn't have enough freshness and spark to compete with "Little Miss Sunshine."[/size] [size=3][/size] [size=3]"Dedication" is not a bad film, but it could have been so much better if it had not wanted to be liked so much by the wrong people.[/size]

• m h

  
  I honestly found the film a bit boring. It's a slow paced movie. I just kept expecting something exciting or different to happen. I don't think the script or directing was phenomenal. Not bad, a bit cute at times. I think Billy Crudup did a very well job. He's really… More
  I honestly found the film a bit boring. It's a slow paced movie. I just kept expecting something exciting or different to happen. I don't think the script or directing was phenomenal. Not bad, a bit cute at times. I think Billy Crudup did a very well job. He's really convincing as a person with OCD. Although I wasn't rooting for him in the beginning, because he was just so horrible to everyone. I liked how you see a change in him at the ending. Mandy Moore was also good in this. I like how shes stepping into new and different roles, and getting away from that all american girl persona she usually plays. That's all I really have to say. There wasn't much that interested me or made me think. It had it's moments, I liked the acting, and thats why I am giving it 3 stars.

• Janice :

  
  Love the style. Excellent role for Crudup! He brings meaning to this film.

• Quinto W

  
  This film fails at everything it wants to be: comedy, romance and a character study. Billy Crudup's character is too fucked up to handle, understand, believe and care for. Still, there are a few laughs and very good performances from everyone involved.

• Leo L

  
  An interesting movie by Justin Theroux! Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore are great in this, and the storyplot is fascinating. Great direction of an amazing character played by Crudup. Great music.

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