The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015. Remaining movies: 21 Days to go: 17
Movie #419: Say Anything…
I think there’s a big part of me that wishes I was Diane Court (Ione Skye) in high school, but I almost definitely wasn’t. Diane was smart — Corey (Lili Taylor) calls her “a brain” — and so was I, but I wasn’t as dedicated as she was. I wasn’t as accomplished. Or focused. Or open with any parent the way Diane is with her father (John Mahoney). I also (I assume) wasn’t secretly desired by half the guys in my senior class, and if I was well it’s too late to speak up now, losers. Of course, that could be the result of the way in which I actually am a lot like Diane, in that nobody really knew me in high school at all, save about two friends. Then again, I didn’t know myself either, so it’s unlikely anyone else would’ve figured it out. I most definitely did not have a Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), which seems like the best thing about being a Diane Court — a guy who just wants to devote his life to you, to being with you, to making you happy.
The budding and blooming relationship between Diane and Lloyd in Say Anything… is beautiful because of its simplicity. It’s organic and awkward and the two of them just seem to be fumbling through it. She takes a chance on him, mostly because she feels she’s gone her entire high school life without taking any chances at all, and he’s bold enough to ask her in a charming and disarming way. He, meanwhile, is so smitten by her, he’s bowled over by any attention. Even when she thinks she’s blown it by saying something dumb or closed off, he’s grateful to spend another moment with her. This may not be a recipe for a longstanding relationship, and it’ll have to grow and change a lot more if it’s going to last, but at this point in their lives it’s normal and good to be smitten, to be driven by emotion, to think of all the logical reasons why you shouldn’t be with someone, shouldn’t sleep with him, but “[attack] him anyway.” (I LOVE that Diane is the sexual initiator in their relationship.)
Say Anything… is also about letting go of things you’ve clung to your whole life, things that have been part of your identity so long you can hardly imagine yourself without them. The movie approaches this theme two ways, with Corey’s obsession over Joe (Loren Dean) and Diane’s relationship with her father. The Corey and Joe situation is sillier as a plot point, perhaps, with her constant discussion of him and her single-minded song lyrics, but it’s also the more relatable, authentic representation of the teenage experience. We have all either been or known that person who can’t stop talking about their ex, who keeps going back to them, who writes songs or poetry or endless diary entries about them — even Corey’s bedroom graffiti is about Joe — and so we recognize Corey in ourselves and in our friends. We recognize the youth and immaturity in her experience and know it’s something she’s just going to have to grow out of. And, wonderfully, we’re there for the moment. He approaches her, she abandons all her outward hatred to declare her love for him, he proceeds to tell her how he’s totally going to break up with Mimi (Chynna Phillips) before she goes off to college, and something clicks in Corey’s head so she tells him goodbye. I have DEFINITELY been Corey before.
The situation with Diane’s father is more traditional film conflict, but obviously most of us have never discovered our parents are criminals, so in that respect it’s far further out in left field than Corey’s circumstances. However, what the crumbling of that relationship represents in the real world is how all of us at some point — usually sometime in those teenage years — realize our parents are flawed. They don’t have all the answers. They’ve made mistakes. They are very likely still making mistakes. They have ideas about what’s best for you that might not actually be what makes you happy. And that realization can be hard to accept, particularly if you’ve always looked up to one or both of your parents. It can be a crushing blow to come to terms with the fact that they’re trying to figure things out just as much as you are, and that eventually you’re going to have to go out on your own, and find your own way.
My only real complaint about Say Anything… is that Diane doesn’t do for Lloyd the same thing that Lloyd does for Diane — that way he helps her to accept and embrace the emotional side of herself. I would’ve really liked Diane to help Lloyd accept and embrace a more responsible side of himself, so that they balanced each other out more. Then again, Lloyd gets a job teaching kickboxing while they’re still in Seattle, and he’s the calm reassurance she needs on the flight to England, so maybe she’s done that for him after all. Maybe England is where Lloyd figures out what he wants to do and be, beyond “with Diane.” I would watch that movie.