Dedication: Justin Theroux’s directing debut is half good

Actor Justin Theroux has carved a niche for himself as one of indie film’s quirky leading men—that’s him brooding handsomely through Inland Empire, Mulholland Drive, and The Baxter, among many others. With Dedication, Theroux makes his maiden voyage behind the camera, directing David Bromberg’s tale of love, ambition, and mental illness with an idiosyncratic assurance that initially led me to presume the script was Theroux’s own.

The story: In New York City, a pair of mentally unstable, harmoniously codependent men find success writing and illustrating children’s books. When the elder of the pair (Tom Wilkinson) abruptly expires, his younger and more aggressively fucked-up partner (Billy Crudup) must carry on. His salvation comes in the form of Lucy (Mandy Moore), a fledgling illustrator with a promising portfolio and troubles of her own.

This loopy duo’s clashes, collaboration, and eventual courtship fill the majority of Dedication, which seems to grow more conventional by the frame. By the final kiss, we’ve landed in Cameron Crowe territory, which sucks, because the first half of the film is something of its own, capturing the messy terrain of functional mental illness more artfully than any film I’ve seen.

The majority of Dedication’s characters lead aggressively fractured lives, which they stagger and march through with varying degrees of resilience. At one end of the spectrum is Billy Crudup’s Henry, who labors daily against incapacitating anger and OCD; at the other, Dianne Wiest as Lucy’s mother, a Manhattan realtor sporadically sideswiped by flashes of insanity. In between are the people who love and depend on them, which is crazy in its own right, and I watched in quiet dread as Dedication deserted its rich character study for a far more prosaic Tale of Love and Redemption. Still, a promising debut for Theroux, whom I wish better luck next time.

DEDICATION DIR. JUSTIN THEROUX | RATED R | AT SELECT THEATERS IN LA AND OC

Tags: billy crudup, justin theroux, mandy moore