Blast from the Past- Say Anything

Lloyd Dobler is the closest thing to a modern-day Aristotle we have.  He is an under-achieving, unimpressive romantic who also happens to be one of the greatest philosophers of this or any time. Think Silent Bob without the fart jokes and copious amounts of weed.  In Lloyd Dobler, Cameron Crowe, with no small degree of help from John Cusack, created his most timeless and cinematically influential character, which is saying something for the guy who also conjured up Rod Tidwell and Penny Lane.  Say Anything... is a good film, with a phenomenal character.  It reeks of 80's new wave and its dialogue is more than a little contrived at times, but it is the rare film where we just don't care.  Everything that happens in and around Lloyd are a means to the next beautiful, inspiring, and sometimes tragic thing that is about to come out of his mouth.  And it works.  I don't know how or why it works, but it does.

Say Anything... is really a very simple tale.  Boy meets girl, girl falls for boy, girl's father doesn't approve of boy, girl dumps boy, boy gets depressed, girl returns to boy, they live happily ever after.  Our story opens on Lloyd Dobler surrounded by a group of his female friends as he fawns over the untouchable Diane Court (Ione Sky).  Diane is the valedictorian of her class, and that compounded with her beauty makes her the envy of every girl in school.  Against the advice of the gaggle of females, Lloyd sets his sights on Diane, proclaiming in one of his greatest moments, "I want to get hurt!"  And that is that.  His mind is made up and he begins his attempts to court Court.  

Of the slew of boys who make this same attempt, Diane picks Lloyd.  After an odd telephone conversation, Diane agrees to accompany him to their graduation kegger.  Upon arrival at the party, Lloyd is deemed "keymaster", meaning it is his responsibility to gather keys from the patrons of the party and determine who can drive at the end of the night and who can't.  The party, you might notice, is a veritable who's who of future stars.  Jeremy Piven, Eric Stoltz, Pamela Adlon, and Lili Taylor all show up to bid farewell to their formative years in style.  Even the high school guidance counselor shows up to the party, which I guess we are supposed to find typical, and seeing Lloyd, approaches him to ask him if he has made up his mind about his future like the rest of his classmates.  Lloyd answers with a wonderful quip.

"How many of them really know what they want, though? I mean, a lot of them think they have to know, right? But inside they don't really know, so... I don't know, but I know that I don't know."

And that is the thesis for the post-high school life of Lloyd Dobler.  He knows he likes a few things: Kickboxing (the sport of the future), Peter Gabriel, and Diane Court.  And why does he have to know more than that?  His argument, which becomes abundantly clear throughout the rest of the film is simple-  he doesn't.

As Lloyd's relationship with Diane progresses her father (John Mahoney) becomes more and more involved in his daughter's romantic goings-on.  What high school boy hasn't lived that story?  Some over-bearing patriarch who thinks his daughter's taste in boys is his business.  He doesn't approve of Lloyd, nor his lackadaisical approach toward his future manifested in Lloyd's most classic line.

"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."

This plot-line is perhaps my biggest complaint with the film.  It's played out now and it was played out in 1989.  A father raises his daughter alone and their relationship is closer than most so Daddy feels like he is losing a daughter and takes it out on poor Joe High School.  It really is a shame.  It's almost a waste of John Mahoney's talents on such a droll trope.  Almost.  He gets his moment in the sun because of the one caveat to this particular story.  You see, Mr. Court owns and operates a retirement home and has, apparently been cooking the books to hide the money he has been stealing from his residents for some time.  

Lloyd and Diane continue their relationship and things are going swimmingly when Diane receives a letter that she has ben accepted for a prestigious fellowship that would take her out of the country for a year.  At her father's coaxing, Diane dumps Lloyd as she "owes it to herself" to go on the fellowship free from encumberances.  Lloyd goes into a wholly hilarious, yet heartbreaking depression that sees him standing in the rain, leaving endless messages from payphones, and seeking advice from the ladykilling group of idiots sipping 40's outside the local gas station.  And then comes the most famous scene of the film.  Diane is sitting in her room when she hears Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" playing from outside.  We then see Lloyd standing in front of his car, hoisting a Run DMC-style boombox above his head, his eyes begging for Diane to come to the window.  She doesn't.  The boombox scene, frankly deserves a write-up all its own, but that sort of takes the magic away from seeing it for the first time, so i'll refrain.  

The pressure becomes too heavy to deny from the IRS and Diane pays a visit to an investigator, played by Philip Baker Hall.  He says in simple terms that Mr. Court is guilty.  He presents only enough evidence to Diane for her to prepare herself for when the figurative shit finally hits the fan.  Diane then approaches her father, who lies to her about his activities.  Diane realizes that her father's self-serving agenda includes the wedge he drove between her and Lloyd and she goes running back to Lloyd whose response is simple and again echoes high school boys the world over: "One question: are you here 'cause you need someone, or 'cause you need me?... Forget it, I don't care."

Lloyd accompanies Diane to Europe, but not before paying her father a visit who has since been imprisoned for his crimes.  He delivers a scathing letter from Diane stating that she can no longer trust her own father and that despite everything she still has love for him.  Things escalate between Lloyd and Mr. Court leading Mr. Court to call Lloyd a "distraction".  But Lloyd has won at this point and his response is simple.  He tells Mr. Court, "I'm the distraction that's going with her to England, sir."

The film ends with Lloyd and Diane on an airplane.  Diane is afraid of flying, but Lloyd assures her that everything will be okay and to wait for the smoking sign to come on.  Once the smoking sign comes on, it means that the plane is safely in the air and there is nothing to worry about anymore.  Lloyd and Diane sit, hand-in-hand waiting for the light and its accompanying "ding" that comes with it.  Cut to black.  Ding.

Say Anything...is a very flawed film, but the film isn't the achievement.  Lloyd Dobler is the lasting mark Say Anything... left on the world.  It is a true testament to the possible results of artistic collaboration.  Cameron Crowe wrote the words.  He molded the story, and brought it to life.  But Lloyd Dobler would be utterly forgettable in the hands of anybody but John Cusack.  Cusack is a very rare talent.  He is in a category all his own.  When you need John Cusack for a role, nobody else will do.  There is no "John Cusack" type.  There is just John Cusack.  He is unique in the same way that Bill Murray is unique- there is just no substitute.  The film world had been given glimpses of John Cusack prior to Say Anything... but they never forgot him afterwards.  I could spend time writing about how the dialogue could have been improved, or how the characters surrounding Lloyd are little more than a means to trigger emotional responses from Lloyd, but why?  It's a sweet, if average 80's high school love story with one exception- Lloyd Dobler.  I'll never be half as clumsily poetic as Lloyd, so I'll wrap this up with his own words.

"What I really want to do with my life - what I want to do for a living - is I want to be with your daughter. I'm good at it."

Overall Ratings

Say Anything...- 7/10

Lloyd Dobler- 10/10