Taglines: A Lloyd meets girl story.
Say Anything… movie synopsis. Diane Court (Ione Skye) and Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) have just graduated from Lakewood High School in Seattle. Overachieving Diane, who probably does not realize how beautiful she is, was the class valedictorian. She strives for excellence in everything she does as a natural course, resulting in not having a social life, although she could probably get any boy she wanted despite feeling socially awkward herself.
She lives with her divorced father, Jim Court, who owns a nursing home, who dotes on Diane and who does whatever he needs to validate her being the best. Diane receiving a prestigious fellowship to study in England in the fall is just the latest validation that she indeed is at the top of the pyramid. An army brat, Lloyd recently returned to the US to finish high school, he now living with his single mother sister Constance while their parents remain stationed in Germany.
Lloyd, who does kick-boxing as a hobby, has no career aspirations, only knowing that he wants to do something great. His only short term aspiration is to date Diane, despite the improbability, it generally seen that she is out of his league. With the fellowship in hand, Diane lets her social guard down for the first time in her life in accepting Lloyd’s offer of a date, despite she not even knowing who he is. Following that date, Lloyd wants to spend as much time with Diane in the next sixteen weeks before she leaves.
Diane, who likes Lloyd and who finds that she now regrets not having that social life with her high school colleagues, has to decide if Lloyd does fit into her life at this crucial time just before she is about to leave. What happens is also dependent on her father, not only in he perhaps seeing any boy, but even more one like Lloyd who does not have the same future outlook as he has for Diane being merely a distraction, but something that happens in his own life. Lloyd figuring out what that something great as something to do may also factor into what happens.
Say Anything… is a 1989 American teen romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe in his directorial debut. The film follows the romance between Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack), an average student, and Diane Court (Ione Skye), the class valedictorian, immediately after their graduation from high school. In 2002, Entertainment Weekly ranked Say Anything… as the greatest modern movie romance, and it was ranked number 11 on Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 50 best high-school movies.
About the Story
Noble underachiever Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) falls for valedictorian Diane Court (Ione Skye) at their high-school graduation ceremony. Lloyd lives with his sister Constance (Cusack’s real-life sister Joan Cusack), a single mother, and has no plans for his future. Diane comes from a sheltered academic upbringing and lives with her doting divorced father Jim (John Mahoney), who owns the retirement home where she works. She is due to take up a fellowship in England at the end of the summer.
Diane accompanies Lloyd to a party, surprising their classmates. During a dinner at the Court household, where Lloyd fails to impress Diane’s family, Jim is informed that he is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Diane takes Lloyd to meet the residents of the retirement home and he teaches her to drive the manual-transmission Ford Tempo her father gave her as a graduation present. Their relationship grows intimate and they have sex, to her father’s concern. Lloyd’s musician friend Corey (Lili Taylor), who has never gotten over her cheating ex-boyfriend, Joe (Loren Dean), warns him to take care of Diane.
Jim urges Diane to break up with Lloyd, feeling he is not an appropriate match, and suggests she give Lloyd a pen as a parting gift. Diane tells Lloyd she wants to stop seeing him and concentrate on her studies, and tells him to take her pen. Devastated, Lloyd seeks advice from Corey, who tells him to “be a man”. Jim’s credit cards are declined when he tries to buy Diane a luggage set.
At dawn, Lloyd plays “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel, the song that was playing the first time they slept together, on a boombox under her open bedroom window. The next day, Diane meets with the IRS investigator (Philip Baker Hall), who explains that they have evidence suggesting Jim has been embezzling funds from his retirement-home residents.
He advises her to accept the fellowship as matters with her father will worsen. After Diane discovers cash concealed at home, Jim tells her he stole the money to give her financial independence, justifying it by saying he provided better care to the victims of his embezzlement than their families did. Distraught, she reconciles with Lloyd at the gym where he trains.
Say Anything… (1989)
Directed by: Cameron Crowe
Starring: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, Amy Brooks, Pamela Adlon, Jason Gould, Charles Walker, Loren Dean, Polly Platt, Gloria Cromwell, Jeremy Piven
Screenplay by: Cameron Crowe
Production Design by: Mark W. Mansbridge
Cinematography by: László Kovács
Film Editing by: Richard Marks
Costume Design by: Jane Ruhm
Set Decoration by: Joe D. Mitchell
Music by: Anne Dudley, Richard Gibbs
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: April 14, 1989
Visits: 114
