Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I know people will probably throw rocks at me but I definitely didn't like this movie. I know it was intended to be like an "indie flick" or dramatic comedy but I think this movie is a mess. It's not fun, nor inspiring, nor real. The point is, this movie was so boring from beginning to the end, I actually saw myself fast-fowarding plenty of times. Only good part of the movie was the acting of Tom Wilkinson. thumbs down to this one, if you're expecting to see a good romantic comedy, stay away of this one and look for "about a boy", "definetely, maybe", if you're looking for an indie movie, try "Garden State", "Juno". This one is simply gonna set you in a bad mood. Amazing how overrated this got at IMDb.

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 9 out of ten.

I have to say too (like some of the other commentators) that this shouldn't be titled as a romantic comedy, although that it may be. But maybe it could attract more people to it by saying that it is a Drama, instead of a romantic comedy with Mandy "isn't she the singer" Moore.The leading guy was great. Can't remember any big roles from him before, but he really shines in this one. Mandy Moore wasn't too bad either. The only thing stopping me giving this movie a 9 or a 10 is the fact that I couldn't quite see the relationship with the two main characters growing to the measures I think it was supposed to. I mean if they would have just added and old fashioned scene where they are laughing together and doing different stupid things for about two minutes, it would have been more believable. You know,pillow fights and stuff... But certainly a positive surprise from a "romantic comedy".

Response to Boston Globe review (9/21/07) It took dedication and perseverance to see the Sundance Festival (not mentioned) film "Dedication" after reading your negative review. Having overcome the barriers created by your dissection of characters and plot I was surprised to find the film both rewarding and enjoyable despite Mandy Moore's hair color. The cinematography was fresh as was the use of music. The characters had emotional dimensions of complexity and interest in contrast to the flat facades too often presented in today's films. Henry's deep neuroses were believably quirky and contributed to the intrigue of an unpredictable character. His intense dialog with his dead friend and partner gave vent to his inner confusion and added a charmingly bizarre facet of interest to the film. I regret that you did not recognize the film's attributes.