Dedication.

"Inland Empire's Justin Theroux pops his directorial cherry with this obnoxious Sundance throwaway, a by-the-numbers romantic comedy that mistakenly believes it's either too quirky or too irreverent to be a by-the-numbers romantic comedy," writes Aaron Hillis in the Voice.

"Though smug and attention-grubbing in equal measures, inviting comparisons to Burr Steers's abhorrent Igby Goes Down, Dedication at least deploys the darling chemistry between [Billy] Crudup and [Mandy] Moore to good effect, softening the blow of the dialogue's mean-spiritededness," writes Ed Gonzalez at Slant.

Via SXSW's revived News Reel: Edward Douglas talks with Theroux for ComingSoon.net.

Updated through 8/24.

Updates, 8/23: Eric Kohn, writing in the New York Press, notes the point at which "the seams of Dedication start to come apart. Replacing his passion for writing with a hopelessly juvenile romantic wild goose chase, Henry makes a decision that alters the movie's initially engaging trajectory."

"Dedication wants to be an endearingly quirky character study in which expressionistic aesthetics lend lyricism to the saga of weird individuals struggling to attain personal contentment and fulfillment," writes Nick Schager for Cinematical. "What it actually is, however, is an unoriginal romantic comedy that vainly attempts to mask its conventionality with all manner of eccentricities."

"Women in romantic comedies always choose the fucked-up guy at the end," notes Annaliese Griffin at the Reeler. Dedication "paints a darker, more intellectually driven picture for its mismatched-but-perfect-for-another lovers, but nonetheless sticks to the girl-falls-for-disaster formula." More from Michelle Orange: "Between Julie Delpy two weeks ago and Ben Affleck this coming fall, you'd think the cream of the mid-90s indie sweetheart scene was having a midlife career crisis. Judging from most of these efforts, the directors are having a crisis - a mid-90s, indie sweetheart crisis."

Update, 8/24: "Following on the wildly successful antifeminist heels of Knocked Up, Hollywood is falling over itself to introduce beautiful, smart young women to useless, possibly brain-damaged young men," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. "Dedication is almost saved by David Bromberg's tart dialogue and exceptional acting from its three leads." But, no.

Posted by dwhudson at August 21, 2007 1:38 PM