01/27/2007

"27012007"

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Trust the Man (R2) in March

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Sundance deals aplenty

TWC and First Look paid $4 million for Justin Theroux's romantic drama "Dedication," starring Billy Crudup and Mandy Moore. UTA and Cinetic repped the film, which was produced by Celine Rattray, Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Galt Niederhoffer. (Trio also produced "Grace is Gone.")

Credit www.variety.com

Sundance Work by Actor-Directors Ranges Widely

To accentuate the positive, let's start with the Good. Actually the Very Good in the case of Justin Theroux ("Six Feet Under," "Inland Empire"), whose debut feature in the Spectrum section, "Dedication," is one of the festival's true discoveries. Watching the first half of the film calls to mind one of Sundance's biggest hits ever, "American Splendor," a film about an artist who lives in his own world and doesn't give a damn about anything else. Working with a terrific cast and a screenplay by David Bromberg, Theroux presents you with an unlikely and unlikable protagonist -- a neurotic, misanthropic, angry, dysfunctional man who has, he admits, "no good side." Yet he is an utterly compelling character. Henry Roth, played by Billy Crudup, is a piece of work: Here's a man capable of such mean-spirited behavior, a bundle of nerves and phobias who embraces his own misery and asks for no quarter from anyone. Wouldn't you know it, he writes children's books!

The second half of the film moves into a more conventional mode, where the logic of the story and character arcs becomes predictable. Nevertheless, Theroux and Crudup never abandon their character's basic nature; they simply find ways to prove he was wrong about his bad side. When Roth loses his illustrator and one and only friend Rudy (Tom Wilkinson) to brain cancer, he must take on an anxious female illustrator with shaky self-confidence, Lucy (Mandy Moore), to fulfill a contractual obligation for the next book in a wildly successful series. Yes, he's going to fall in love with her and she's going to pull him, kicking and screaming, from his shell of misery. But even here, when things become predictable, the actors hold onto the truth of their characters. This is one of the best things an actor-director can bring to the table: His performers deliver delicious performances that can shock and amuse simultaneously. Crudup tackles a dangerous role, one that can go wrong in so many ways, but everything works here because he conveys the inner torment of a man who has suffered -- and dished out -- abuse all his life. Moore proves she can move beyond her teen queen image into more enticing roles that contain nuances of ambivalent emotions. Wilkinson's Rudy, the opposite to Henry in virtually every way, returns from beyond the grave from time to time to offer sagacious commentary and advice to Henry. Even a bad actor could make a meal with the terrific dialogue Wilkinson is handed, but he veritably dines on the feast. Dianne Wiest plays Lucy's mother, a woman who has read so many books about tough love that she knows no other way to express maternal affection. And Bob Balaban as Henry's editor offers another brilliant deadpan performance that includes the film's best line.

Credit www.backstage.com