Directed by: Cameron Crowe
One other bias I should confess: I love Lloyd Dobler.
Now that I've got that out of the way, I can get on with the review. The premise behind the film is fairly simple: boy (Lloyd Dobler, as played by John Cusack) meets girl (Diane Court, as played by Ione Skye), boy loses girl, and boy must win girl back again. Throw into the mix a bunch of Cocoon-loving old folks, Diane's protective father (played to perfection by Mahoney), Eric Stoltz dressed up as a chicken, and a proto-Phoebe-Buffay rocker chick (Lili Taylor) who's written 65 songs about her ex-boyfriend Joe, "and they're all about pain." Oh, and don't forget those all-important two-and-a-half words--no, not the Gulp 'n' Blow, I'm talking about the Gas 'n' Sip!
Crowe's first film, which he also wrote, is not by any means a groundbreaking film, at least in terms of technical innovation. I remember reading an interview with Crowe on salon.com where he said he filmed an entire scene in wide-angle and thought he was all finished until the crew told him he actually had to do some close-ups as well. But where Say Anything... does succeed is in its characterizations--none are as simple as they seem. Diane, for instance, is more than a brain who's read the better part of the dictionary--as one character puts it, "she's a brain, trapped in the body of a game-show hostess."
What I love about Cameron Crowe's work is that he always includes these little throw-away scenes that, upon first viewing, don't seem to add a lot to the plot, but are in fact nuanced enough that you'll see something new there each time you watch it. For instance, Bebe Neuwirth as a guidance counsellor who parties with the best of them? At first, you're all, "Huh? Why is Lilith there?", but then you begin to see that, for Lloyd, duty (she tells him gently that he needs to decide on a career) is beginning to encroach on his quest for a "dare-to-be-great" existence, which has heretofore consisted of kickboxing (what he terms "the sport of the future"), and avoiding all things "bought, sold, and processed."
All notable quotations and dreamy-Peter-Gabriel-boombox-serenade moments aside, what makes this film worth watching are Cusack's and Skye's performances. Their relationship is frank and true-to-life, including all the awkward moments. Say Anything... shows us that these are the moments to revel in, and wait for--much like the sound you hear on airplanes when the seatbelt light goes off. (Trust me; just watch the film, you'll get it then.)
-reviewed by the ladybug, Feb.15, 2002
