The film begins with Gilly Noble (Chris Klein) taking a stray cat named “Ringo” to the animal shelter where he works in Shelbyville, Indiana. Gilly gets his hair cut by a beautiful young aspiring hairdresser named Jo Wingfield (Heather Graham). As Jo cuts Gilly’s hair, she mentions that she recently lost a tail-less cat named Ringo, leading Gilly to tell her that Ringo is at the pound.
The excitement causes Jo to accidentally cut off a part of Gilly’s ear, and he is rushed to the hospital where the ear is reattached. To make up for the incident, Jo invites Gilly to her house for lunch the next day, where Gilly meets Jo’s self-centered mother, Valdine (Sally Field), and stroke-suffering father, Walter (Richard Jenkins).
Gilly and Jo date for six months before getting engaged, but suddenly a private detective, Vic Vetter (Brent Briscoe), contacts Gilly to tell him that he’s Valdine and Walter’s son. After Gilly and Jo end their incestuous relationship, Gilly moves in with his new family, and Jo moves to Beaver, Oregon to start a new life. After being branded a “sister-fucker”, Gilly loses his job at the animal shelter and is forced to take a job removing roadkill for the highway department.
Sixteen months later, a surprise comes to the Wingfield doorstep in the form of a young man named Leon Pitofsky (Jack Plotnick), who claims to be Valdine and Walter’s son and presents his birth certificate as proof. Valdine and Walter feel better for a few moments before angrily lashing out at Gilly and forcing him to leave. Valdine notifies the Beaver police that Gilly is a sex offender. Gilly runs for his life and decides to go to Oregon to inform Jo. On the way to Oregon, he befriends a pilot with two prosthetic legs named Dig (Orlando Jones).
Meanwhile, Jo becomes engaged to her ex-boyfriend Jack Mitchelson (Eddie Cibrian), a rich and powerful young man who secretly deals in marijuana, controls over half the town by paying off numerous politicians, and cheats on Jo with his ex-girlfriend, a local cop named Gina (Sarah Silverman).
Valdine keeps pushing Jo to marry Jack in order to become involved with Jack’s wealth, although Jo still loves Gilly. Valdine keeps Leon secluded and tells Jo that Leon is a figment of Gilly’s imagination. Gilly tries to hide from the authorities, and Dig frequently aids him in his escape from Jack’s henchmen.
Say It Isn’t So is a 2001 American romantic comedy film directed by J.B. Rogers, written by Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow, and starring Heather Graham and Chris Klein as two young lovers who come to believe that they are actually siblings.
Say It Isn’t So opened in the United States on March 23, 2001 in 1,974 venues. It ranked number 10 at the North American box office, earning $2,861,903 in its opening weekend.[3] At the end of its run, the film grossed $5,520,393 in the United States and $6,800,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $12,320,393.
Say It Isn’t So (2001)
Directed by: J.B. Rogers
Starring: Chris Klein, Heather Graham, Orlando Jones, Sally Field, Richard Jenkins, John Rothman, Jack Plotnick, Eddie Cibrian, Mark Pellegrino, Brent Hinkley
Screenplay by: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow
Production Design by: Sydney J. Bartholomew Jr.
Cinematography by: Mark Irwin
Film Editing by: Larry Madaras
Costume Design by: Lisa Jensen
Set Decoration by: John Philpotts
Music by: Mason Daring
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, crude humor and language.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: March 23, 2001
Visits: 80
