“Dedication” is clueless about the industry it details. Henry Roth (Billy Crudup) and Rudy Holt (Tom Wilkinson) are a successful children’s book writing team. Only thing is, their book, “Marty the Beaver and the Christmas Dam” would get passed over in Dollar Tree's remainder bin. After Rudy dies, the mentally unstable Henry is flung together with Lucy (Mandy Moore). She’s tasked with illustrating the next “Marty the Beaver” book; one hopes she’s as mediocre as the first guy. In lieu of the zany high jinks that would be present in any other movie with this high-concept gimmick, “Dedication” gives us depressing, over-written personality clashes.
In a callback to writer-director James L. Brooks, a potential breakthrough comes for the OCD-suffering Henry when he attempts to work with Lucy at a lake house: he successfully turns a key clockwise. As an idiosyncrasy, fear of turning things clockwise seems pretty lame. (With apologies to all the clockwise-turn-phobes out there). And it’s mentioned only once, along with dozens of other fears and behaviors. Compare this to Jack Nicholson stepping on a sidewalk crack towards the end of “As Good As It Gets.” In that case, it was a release of very specific and well-documented pressure built up throughout the entire film.
Lucy's as blank as Henry is artificially complex. If nothing else, she lacks the personality that the make-up artist thinks she has. Raccoon eye shadow tells us she’s an artist, or that she’s living on the edge. In truth, Lucy exists only because someone has to tearfully react to Henry’s abuse.
“Dedication” has all the beats of a romantic comedy without the comedy: clashing personalities forced together, a big secret known to all but one person, and a “wedding aisle” speech. Up to the end, Henry maintains an odious, bipolar disdain for normal human interaction. I actively rooted against him getting together with Lucy. Alas, she almost does the right thing. The hip, indie-cred-boosting song that fades up on the end credits sums it up better than I can: “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.”
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