Writers: David Bromberg
Directors: Justin Theroux
Cast: Mandy Moore, Billy Crudup, Tom Farrow, Bob Balaban, Lewis St Paul, Jeremy Shamos, Martin Freeman, Dianne Wiest, Tom Wilkinson, Erik Rhodes, Antonio Parisi, Jicky Schnee
Rating: R
Studio: Weinstein Company
strong>Release Date: February 12, 2008
It’s hard to like a romantic comedy that just isn’t funny. I don’t like romantic comedies by principle. I try to avoid them like the plague, but I figure that I need some negative reviews, so I throw a few of them into my list of “to watch” DVDs.
Occasionally, I even find one I like because it has a good story to support the sappy sentimentality that typically accompanies romantic movies. I can look past sap if a movie has substance. Sadly, Dedication is a substance-less, piece of gowno, as my Polish father might have said, if he were still alive.
Release Information:
The movie had what I like to call, one heck of a pathetic movie theater run. The beginning of Dedication‘s movie run began on August 24, 2007. Just two theaters ran the movie. The next week, Dedication ran in three theaters. In the third week, one of those theaters dropped it, but in its forth week, six more theaters picked the movie up. This was the biggest theater run for the movie, with eight theaters showing the film in total. All six dropped the movie after just one week and then only two were left, so Dedication really bombed theatrically.
For your viewing pleasure (you must note that I say this in the most facetious of ways), the Weinstein Company has kindly decided to release Dedication on DVD this February. February 12, 2008, to be exact, was the day the DVD was released to both national retailers and online. Amazon is selling the movie for $14.99, but I say save that money and spend it on a couple of Slurpies. You’ll enjoy these delicious frozen treats much better and your money will last longer.
The Dedication Plot
Dedication is one of those stories that tries to be ironic and witty, but really, it doesn’t succeed. The story follows the romance of Henry Roth (Billy Crudup) and Lucy Reilly (Mandy Moore). It’s one of those romantic stories you’ve seen a million times before. Boy gets in a bind and someone sends him girl to solve the problem. Boy hates girl. Boy insults girl. Girl takes it with a smile and tries to nurture his soul, not letting his bad nature get to her. Boy begins to like and value girl because she stuck around. Blah, blah, blah…yadda, yadda, yadda. You know the story. You get the point. It’s supposed to be a comedy. That’s the ironic part.
Henry is a writer. He’s a bit crazy like most of the writers out there. He’s meticulous, obsessive compulsive, and tested. Henry has a successful book series, he has created. Think of him as the male J.K. Rowling. Henry writes the book series for children with the help of his illustrator Rudy (Tom Wilkinson). As you might imagine, something happens to Rudy and he dies. Rudy wasn’t just a friend, he helped create the world of Henry’s characters, at least in a visual and artistic sense. Without Rudy, Henry is unable to continue.
So, the publisher does the only thing they know how to do. They find Rudy’s replacement for Henry. They had to find a way to piss Henry off, and wouldn’t you guess that the illustrator they send is the young, fresh-faced Lucy. Henry wants nothing to do with Lucy, but as mean as he is to her, she’s either too stupid or too devoted to helping him, to go away. Finally, eventually, Henry sees what a help to him Lucy is and they fall in love. Awww…isn’t it sickly sweet? I thought so too, but then once again, where’s the humor in this movie? There simply is none.
It’s easy to see that this is the directorial debut for Justin Theroux. The story development isn’t very entertaining and the choices he made for editing, blocking, camera work and what not makes the relationship between the actors suffer. Surprisingly enough, Mandy Moore and Billy Crudup do okay, but nothing could really save a movie with a crappy script.
Storyline/Plot: 
Replayability:
Acting: 
Directing:
Audio/Visual:
The visual quality of Dedication is decent. Presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, there really aren’t any visible compression errors. Colors are vibrant for the most part though some of them bleed and distort a bit at times. This is what prevents the video from getting a perfect rating. It’s bad enough to watch this film for it’s content, but add in the occasional visual distortion and you’ll begin to wonder (as I did) why Weinstein Company even released this film.
The only thing that works for Dedication is its audio quality. The music sounds nice and brings a full bodied sound to the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix. The dialogue is clear to hear. There will be no need to fiddle with the volume throughout the movie. Everything should come through loud and clear.
Visual:
Audio:
Bonus Features:
Dedication has absolutely no special features. I guess we should be grateful for that. The need for additional torture in a bonus section always peeves me off in a bad film, and trust me, most of them are teeming with special features.
Bonus Features:
Bottom Line:
I don’t think there is a nicer way to put it. Rent Dedication before buying it. I am sure some sappy Mandy Moore fans (unfortunately, I’m related to one of them, so I know how it goes) will want to add Dedication to their chick-flickers dream of a movie arsenal. If you, like me, are a realist who thinks romantic comedies made past the 1980s seem to suck, then don’t come near this film with a ten foot pole. Save yourself while you can.
Overall Rating:
Technorati Tags: Dedication, Weinstein Company, DVD Review, Mandy Moore, Romantic
