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Saturday, June 23, 2012

Peter Gabriel

Film: Say Anything
Format: DVD from NetFlix on Sue’s Mother’s Day gift.

I tend to watch films on my own, and I tend to watch them on my portable. There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes I have to use the laptop, sometimes I hang out in my living room, and at least once a week I iron, so I watch something on my giant television in my basement. This is when I tend to watch VHS tapes, because that’s the only television with a working VCR. Anyway, Sue wanted a nice television for the bedroom, so that was her Mother’s Day present this year. And she also wanted to feed her John Cusack obsession, so I watched Say Anything with her. It’s a bit of a change-up from my normal movie watching pattern.

Cusack made his name early in his career as the hero of teen rom-coms like Better Off Dead and The Sure Thing. Say Anything sort of marks the end of this phase of his career. He still played a few romantic roles after this, but much more as an adult—he couldn’t pull off the “recent high school graduate” thing much longer. Anyway, the film follows a lot of the conventions of the genre; it just does this really, really well.

Cusack plays Lloyd Dobler, who is almost a stereotype of an early John Cusack character. Lloyd is an underachiever. He’s an average student and likes kickboxing. Change out kickboxing for MMA, and you’ve got 50% of guys in high school right now. However, he fights above his weight class romantically, falling for Diane Court (Ione Skye), his class valedictorian. Diane is bright, but a bit socially backward. She won a fellowship to study in England at the end of the summer, but this doesn’t deter Lloyd, who pursues her anyway.

Lloyd’s life is movie enough to make it interesting for a movie, but believable enough to not cause eye rolling. He lives with his sister (Joan Cusack) and her son because his parents are both in the military and are overseas. Regardless of hits life being something other than the norm, Lloyd is a stand-up guy, a genuinely nice guy.

And so, they become a couple, and they’re a cute couple despite the fact that they really don’t appear to belong together at all. Their relationship progresses but there are some significant problems. The biggest problem isn’t the fact that she is destined for greatness and Lloyd is destined for mediocrity, but her father (John Mahoney). He disapproves of Lloyd, as is to be expected (and as a father of daughters myself, I heartily approve of his disapproval). He runs a nursing home, and we discover mid-way through the film that he’s under investigation by the IRS.

And so the film progresses. Lloyd tries desperately to spend as much time with Diane as he can before she leaves for England. Diane is conflicted. She is happy to spend time with Lloyd, but thinks that she should be spending more time with her father, both because of her impending trip and because it’s becoming increasingly likely that he’s going to spend time as a guest of the state.

Really, that’s all there is until she breaks up with him. We get a lot of the standard tropes for rom-coms during a breakup, including the tearful phone call in the rain. However, this film is smart enough to play with these conventions—the tearful phone call isn’t between Lloyd and Diane, but between him and his sister. He looks for advice from a group of his peers hanging out at a gas station and immediately regrets it. All of this builds up to “the scene” of this film, the one that anyone who has heard of this film can reference—John Cusack holding a boom box over his head playing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.”

Say Anything is a difficult movie to dislike, so it’s a good thing that I like it. Like a lot of movies that I tend to like, it works because the characters are real and not film caricatures made to emphasize a point or push comedy that wouldn’t work without the characters being jokes. There are a few moments here that are real and help the film work tremendously. Lloyd’s reaction to Diane’s reappearance is perfect, and it’s one of my favorite lines from the film. I also like John Mahoney in this film. His relationship with his daughter is cute and becomes poignant as the film goes on.

What more is there to say here? Say Anything is what a good romantic film should be. It’s good, and it’s romantic. That ought to be enough.

Why to watch Say Anything: It’s a rom-com without being a rom-com.
Why not to watch: Remember the ‘80s? This film won’t let you forget them.

14 comments:

  1. I love this movie!!! It's so sweet and Cusack is amazing. Ugh, unrealistic expectations from life :'(

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  2. I remember not exactly disliking this film, but I couldn't find a lot to like about it. It's been a while since I saw it, and I think I was pretty young at the time, so it's definitely something I need to give another shot.

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  3. @LifeVsFilm--I'm not sure it will go down any better this time. I think this might be a film that you need to see at a certain time in your life and then be able to look back at with fondness.

    @Nikhat--So when haven't the movies given us something unachievable to shoot for?

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  4. I really enjoy the character of Diane Court. I think she's the type of character that doesn't often pop up in teen movies; well-formed, realistic, etc. This is a very sweet movie without going overboard. Nice review!

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    1. That's a good point. Diane is a great character because she isn't extreme in her personality.

      It's interesting, though--Lloyd is sort of a manic pixie dream guy for her. He has all the characteristics. In a sense, this is a film from that character type's point of view.

      Hmm. I need to think about this.

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    2. OOOOHH I like that reading a LOT. Pixie dream guy could so be a new thing in our current culture too. Oh my gosh, and that's so right too with things like the trench coat that he wears and him being into kick boxing. Not unlike Nick Cage in Valley Girl too.

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  5. I thought the movie was pleasant, but Ione Skye's charms were lost on me. Maybe I'm a victim of the cult of the beauty myth, but Skye's looks-- which mainly consisted of an upper lip constantly shying away from her battlement-like upper teeth-- just didn't do it for me, thus marring whatever perceived chemistry there was supposed to be between her and Cusack. Not that I thought she was a poor actress; she wasn't. I'm just superficial.

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    1. I'm really glad I wasn't the first one to say this but I totally agree. Her mouth-breathing and nasal voice also seriously got on my nerves.

      however, I still totally love this movie because of how adorable Cusack is.

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    2. I can neither confirm nor deny that my friend Tim once waited on John Cusack at a fast food drive through, and that Cusack was two dollars short. I can, however, confirm that Tim likes to claim that John Cusack owes him $2.

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  6. I dunno. I guess that didn't bother me. She's pretty in a sort of bland '80s way. I rather like that she wasn't a complete knock-out.

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  7. I remember really getting a kick out of the line - "she's a brain... trapped in the body of a game show hostess."

    I liked this movie well enough, but I never loved it to the extent that a lot of people did. I think it's because of what you mentioned at one point - she's destined for greatness while he's destined for mediocrity. I guess I figured the relationship wouldn't last past her first year at college.

    But the important news is unrelated to this: I tracked down a working copy of Too Early, Too Late. I put the links in the Compendium. I don't know how long they will be good for, so I suggest you get them while they're active.

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    1. I can neither confirm nor deny, but I've been told that Blue Valentine plays like this relationship 10-20 years later. It makes me want to watch that film, though.

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    2. I have not seen Blue Valentine either. Sorry.

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    3. I'm not sure I should have said anything, because I'm not sure I can watch Blue Valentine now without thinking this, even if it isn't true.

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