| DEDICATION |
 2007 - USADirector: Justin Theroux
- Reviewed by Jennifer
Henry Roth (Billy Crudup) and Rudy Holt (Tom Wilkinson) are the author-illustrator team behind a string of successful children's books. They're probably the only two men who can walk out of an adult movie theater with an idea for a kids' book, and their bond is unique to say the least. Henry never really recovered from his abusive childhood, and he's prone to fits of cruelty, anxiety, and depression. He sleeps on the floor with books piled on top of him to quell his nerves, and he's had difficulty maintaining a relationship with anyone at all. When Rudy dies, Henry finds himself alone and at loose ends, but his publisher still expects him to deliver his manuscript on time. He's teamed with a talented young illustrator named Lucy (Mandy Moore), and they live neurotically ever after. Seriously. In the world of romantic comedy, it's just that easy. As Lucy, Mandy Moore channels her inner Ally Sheedy, and produces an insecure character with shaggy hair , loads of black eyeliner, and an oversized anorak. She's one Frito sandwich away from actually being Allison in The Breakfast Club, and you're forever waiting for her to finish off one of her drawings with a little dandruff snow. She's not entirely sure what to make of her life, her cad of an ex-boyfriend has just resurfaced, and her unsupportive mother (Dianne Wiest) is a little crazy, but her problems are nothing compared to Henry's. Upon their first meeting, Henry rips Lucy up one side and down the other simply because he's a chronic, incurable asshole. Lucy is immediately put off, but she finds motivation in the $250,000 bonus she's promised by the publisher. Though she's committed to finishing the task at hand, she and Henry discover that they simply can't work in their current setting. Upon learning that Lucy is inspired by the ocean and the stars, he packs her up for a weekend at their publisher's beach house (i.e. he puts on a helmet and tells Lucy to drive, because that's the kind of right-on guy he is). Over the course of their beach weekend, Henry manages to behave in a somewhat human fashion. He gives Lucy a special rock. They make out. And for the first time in about a gazillion years, he sleeps in an actual bed with nothing stacked on top of him! Clearly things are all better now, but it all falls apart when Henry discovers the truth about Lucy's bonus. He decides she's only in it for the money, pitches a fit, and we have the obligatory separation period that defines romantic movies—"Ooh, will they or won't they get together? I just don't know!" In this case you're praying to the heavens that Lucy will wise up, buy herself a nice condo, and get on with her life. This isn't a likely scenario, and we're left with the image of Lucy trapped in a life with Henry. I suppose we're expected to find it sweet and heartwarming for these two oddballs to fall into each other's arms, but I could only imagine that life with Henry would include unexpected moody spells, random verbal attacks, and loads of depression and paranoia. Can't a girl in a hairy-looking anorak expect to find someone just slightly more functional than that? I picture her driving herself to the hospital in labor while idiot boy straps on his helmet and cowers in the back seat. That's all well and good for Henry Roth (who looks alarmingly like Kevin Federline), but I can't help feeling sorry for Lucy, who clearly doesn't know she can hope for better. Where, I wonder, is Emilio Estevez when we need him? |
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Something Ellen Page said in People has been bothering me lately. She said (basically) that she didn't think The Breakfast Club was all that, because in it the cool, interesting girl (Ally Sheedy) has to change in order to kiss boring old Emilio Estevez. I mulled this over for a few minutes before I balked. Ally didn't need to put on a headband and kiss Emilio to conform - she needed that because she was completely unhappy and needed to know that she deserved the same things in life as anyone else. Had she not kissed the jock on that Saturday morning in high school, she would have turned out just like Mandy Moore in Dedication, and I'll tell you right now, it's not a happy picture.
