I can't remember the very first movie which I came across with John Cusack, I guess it was America's Sweethearts and since that day he ranks high on my favorite actors list. Early on, he already got my standing ovation with his performance in Runaway Jury, and then he became a phenomenon for me once I watched him in High Fidelity. He hits the bull's-eye in every movie with his exceptional talent, portraying unconventional heroes, talkative, carefree, sometimes indecisive, so likable that makes you feel like you are cronies. Even if he says nothing at all, his facial expressions always manage to make me laugh.
After this brief introduction let's move on to the movie. Say Anything is Cameron Crowe's debut film as well as one of the first movies of John. (Yeah, I pretty much took the liberty of calling John Cusack on a first-name basis.) John's character is Lloyd Dobler who has just gratuated from high school and he captures our attention with his style consisting of a tan trenchcoat, The Clash t-shirts, sweatpants accompanied with high top sneakers. Kickboxing is his special interest and his heart beats for Diane Court, the brainy, beautiful girl of their high school.
Although Diane Court adorns the dreams of most guys, to everyone's surprise at school the only guy who convinces her to go out is Lloyd Dobler, a total nobody for everyone. Diane is in the preparation of going to England for college and decides to hang out with Lloyd till she leaves for England. Lloyd is a real considerate lover and he is willing to do anything for Diane. As for Diane, she is stuck in between her father's plans for her future and her unexpected feelings for Lloyd, and watching her inflicting agony on Lloyd makes us want to strangle her throughout the movie. Lloyd's words below describes his misery perfectly:
"She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen."
What made me watch this movie? Ever since I watched Sixteen Candles and got acquainted with the Jake Ryan legend a couple of years ago, I found out that in 1980's, American women compared Jake and Lloyd incessantly as to make the final decision on the important matter of which one is the ideal boyfriend. I immediately got curious about this information and wondered about Lloyd Dobler's qualities that put him in the competition with Jake Ryan. Having seen both of them in action do you want to know my decision?
Well, first of all I want all of you to realize that I'm facing with a tough situation here. I mean, on one side I have Jake Ryan and his birthday cake scene with candle lights competing against Lloyd's boombox serenade scene on the other side. It was really a hard decision but Lloyd Dobler who has no clue about his career plan came out as the winner for me. As we are filled with the joy of scratching out one more movie from our list, the words we hear from Sezen's lips about John Cusack's performance are "This movie sums up John Cusack!"
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