In Committed, Heather Graham plays a young woman so committed to her husband that she winds up "committed" to a psychiatric institution. There's really nothing more to it. Two films into her career, writer-director Lisa Krueger—who showed talent in her minor-key debut Manny & Lo—seems to have run out of ideas, but she evidently has no trouble finding someone to finance a project that floats an empty vessel on the steady current of inertia. Like so many other rote indies, Committed uses quirkiness as a means to avoid taking any risks; since Graham's dedication to her vows is wrapped up in a cute gimmick, she's never forced to confront the real problems and feelings that come with it. Instead, Krueger takes the oft-chosen route of setting her heroine on an aimless journey to Texas, populating the screen with enough local color to divert attention from a story that's going nowhere. She opens with Graham, a New York nightclub booker, conducting a spiritual ceremony before her wedding to photographer Luke Wilson. Staying true to her vows isn't just a principle she brings into the marriage, but her primary source of bliss, like a religion of sorts. Cut to months later, when Wilson has started a new life as a photojournalist in El Paso and Graham is determined to track him down, despite some obvious signs that he has no intention of salvaging their relationship. Were Committed not so driven by high concept, Krueger might have better explored the limits of commitment or how modern society devalues it, but she treats Graham's obsession like a character tic, unrelated to any recognizable human behavior. Krueger's ambling, low-key style allows for a few incidental pleasures, the ever-watchable Casey Affleck chief among them, but without a single compelling reason to exist, Committed remains hollow at its core.