GIVING the oddball-romance film some jittery new moves, Justin Theroux’s directorial Debut, “Dedication,” is a pleasingly weird, dryly funny little indie.
Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore play a depressed writer and a luckless illustrator who hate each other but are thrown together to work on a kiddie book about a strange little beaver. Lucy (Moore) is having trouble paying her rent to her shrieking mother/landlord (Dianne Wiest), while Henry (Crudup) is unable to communicate with anyone except his former mentor (Tom Wilkinson). The only thing that could draw them together is a pebble they both like, or maybe a dedication page ripped out of a book.
Theroux (who played the obnoxious film director in “Mulholland Drive” and was Brenda’s boyfriend/neighbor on “Six Feet Under”) gives a new coat of paint to the “As Good as It Gets” framework, using loopy music from the band Deerhoof and deadpan humor. Henry, whose previous kids’ book was inspired by a visit to a porn theater, can’t turn a key clockwise or get in a car without wearing a crash helmet, while Lucy, who is still obsessed with her pretentious ex-thesis advisor (Martin Freeman), keeps having bizarre arguments with her mother.
Crudup, playing a bitter wreck, is excellent as usual without overdoing the tics, while Moore gets a chance to prove she is an underrated actress as well as a dazzling beauty. Why she isn’t the biggest romantic comedy star on the planet is a mystery.
DEDICATION
***
Running time: 111 minutes. Rated R (profanity, sexual content). At the Sunshine, the Lincoln Square.