Say Anything
Only two types of people can fully appreciate the brilliance of this Cameron Crowe masterpiece: awkward love-sick teenagers, and adults who are going through a terrible heartbreak. The others, yes, they may like it, but it won’t affect them the way it’d hit these two groups of unfortunate souls.
When I first watched Say Anything I thought it was good, but nothing to write home about. Although well-written and well-executed, I noticed Crowe was a bit confused - it started hysterical but when the romance kicked in the comedy started to fade away.
I also didn’t particularly like the ending, but hey, I guess since it was obviously meant for the 15-20 age range, it had to end that way. And when the plot revolves around two mismatched teenagers, why should anyone over 21 care?
And I dunno if I’m having hearing defects in my old age or my downloaded copy just had volume problem but I couldn’t make out most of the dialogues. Oh, and my copy skips too - almost half of the time.
So I guess it should be no surprise that the first time I watched it I didn’t love it as much as I expected I would. I thought I’d breathe…hmn more like pant like crazy when I finally find a copy. I mean yum…err young John Cusack, what’s more to ask right?
By the way, what’s masculine for nubile? 
My verdict then: I watched Say Anything a decade too late. Where the hell was I back in ‘89 when it could have meant more to me? Hmn, now I remember - I was 11, and a promdi bookworm burying my curly ringlets in the twisted lives of Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield.
But few days after I dismissed Say Anything as "good, but not phenomenal", life bit me in the rear, yakked me out of my comfortable deluded shell, and before I knew it I was aching for the film and not my staple treat, Ever After.
And then it hit me.
Hard.
Say Anything is about Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) - Diane Court (Ione Skye) is just a garnish. Lloyd is a nice young underachiever with no plans for college and is looking out for a career in "kickboxing - sports of the future." He falls for their high school valedictorian who’s on her way to England for college, the vapid Diane. Lloyd hangs out with girls - Corey (Lili Taylor) and D.C.(Amy Brooks). The girls warn him against going for the "brain trapped in the body of a gameshow host."
By the way, I know quite a few high school valedictorians, and I have never met anyone who has a face and a body like Diane’s.
Lloyd fidgets and paces but musters the courage to ask Diane to the after-graduation party. She agrees. They go to the party and everybody wonders how he got Diane to agree to go with him. He gets assigned to be the key master, high fives Mark ("You Must Chill!"), played by Jeremy Piven, who’s a lot cuter and has a lot more hair than, well, nowadays.
Lloyd bumps into his high school career counselor who asks him what his plans for college are. He tells her he doesn’t intend to go to community college, and is looking for a dare-to-be-great situation, and that honestly, he doesn’t know what he wants, but at least unlike the others, he knows that he doesn’t know.
They pass by a 7-11 on their way home, and Lloyd points to her some glass to walk around. Diane starts falling. She brings him to a family dinner next. Diane’s father and bestfriend asks him his plans for the future, and he replies,
"I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I dont want to sell anything bought or processed or buy anything sold or processed or repair anything sold, bought or processed as a career. I dont want to do that."
They spend more time together, fall in-love, but agree to be just "friends….with potential" but have sex at the back of Lloyd’s car anyway.
He afterwards proclaims his love by sending her a letter, she reciprocates by breaking up with him, and giving him a pen.
With his heart ripped into pieces, Lloyd seeks out his guy friends at a Gas ‘N Sip. They tell him that Diane isn’t worth it, that she’s just a show pony and what he needs is a stallion - all he has to do is to find someone who looks like Diane, nail her, and then dump her. Lloyd asks,
"I got a question: if you guys know so much about women, how come you’re here at like the Gas ‘n Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?"
He drives around, walks in the rain - it always rains in Cusack films - and leaves messages in her answering machine, the last of which goes, - "Maybe I didn’t really know you. Maybe you were just a mirage. Maybe the world is full of food and sex and spectacle and we’re all just hurling towards an acropolis, in which case it’s not your fault. I’ve been thinking about all these things and….you’re probably standing there monitoring. And one more thing — about the letter. Nuke it, flame it, destroy it — it hurts me to know it’s out there. Later."
And then The Boombox Scene.
It is believed that every girl born between 1965 and 1978 is inlove with John Cusack because of this scene. Lloyd, irresistible in sweatpants, a white shirt, high-cut trainers, and tan trenchcoat, holds a boombox over his head, serenading Diane with their song, Peter Gabriel’s "In Your Eyes".
It’s not the boombox, nor the song, but Lloyd’s pained look on his young face, like he’s on the verge of bursting into tears but tries desperately to save some of his pride - that’s what killed me.
Diane finds out that his father is guilty for stealing money from the patients in his nursing home, goes to the gym to look for Lloyd - who gets punched in the face when he lost concentration upon seeing Diane there - and they get back together.
Diane’s father goes to jail, and Lloyd joins Diane in England.
Diane: "Nobody think’s it will work, do they?"
Lloyd, "No. You’ve just described every great success story."
Despite these brilliant lines, I honestly still prefer a different ending.
John Mahoney is excellent as Diane’s father. He’s solid and composed and I like that his character doesn’t stop Diane from seeing Lloyd. The look on his face when Diane tells him that despite thinking about it and deciding not to sleep with Lloyd, she "attacked him anyway" - that’s just priceless. Fine, fine acting, especially during the bathtub scene shortly before he was jailed.
Lili Taylor is phenomenal. She steals the show from everyone, including Lloyd, whenever she’s in the screen. It’s like seeing what Alanis Morisette was like before the fame and the money came in. Amy Brooks as D.C. is a snoozefest, but I can’t blame her - her character is so dry and droll Crowe could have cast a flowerpot there and it wouldn’t make any difference.
Joan Cusack is in the film for maybe three minutes as Lloyd’s sister.
My most favorite character is, handsdown, Lloyd’s nephew. He’s cute, he’s adorable, and at maybe 4 or 5 years old, already shows unbelievable promise. That’s pure talent right there. I wonder what happened to this kid, and why isn’t his name credited anywhere?
Ione Skye is gorgeous but not quite believable as Diane. She’s a vamp and a brain, sure, but I don’t see what Lloyd sees in her. I mean, Lloyd isn’t a typical teenage guy whose criteria for the perfect girl can be summed up in six words - pretty with a body to match - so why did Crowe forget to give the Diane character some depth?
Of course, Say Anything isn’t Say Anything without The John Cusack. He’s honest, he’s sincere, he’s a natural. He nails this role as the smitten love-sick teenager whose heart was ripped into tiny pieces when the love of his life rejected him.
When Lloyd stands with that boombox over his head, when he shakes and says it happens when he’s happy, when he calls her sister in a phonebooth and tells her, "I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen," he gives me chills.
Say Anything is smart, incredibly honest, and no American Pie - but the genius of this film lies in the fact that is that it is one of the very few movies out there who captures the feeling of love.
When Lloyd looks at Diane, you see it. You feel it.
Pure, genuine, unconditional love.
That’s almost impossible to find these days.
ps
Anyone kind enough to lend me the DVD?
