Lloyd Dobbler is an average teenage boy, maybe a bit less than average if truth be told, no foreseeable prospects or future. In his last year of high school, actually, just after convocation, he declares to his friends that he is going to ask out the valedictorian, the smartest girl in school, Diane Court. His friends warn him away from this because he and Diane movie in different social circles, and there's no way she would give him a chance. They also tell him that he's such a nice guy, and they don't want him to get hurt. He of course disregards this advice and calls her up to invite her to a house party. Initially, Diane is not taken with Lloyd, but on a whim, and because she feels like she's studied so hard throughout the year that she has no social life, she decides to go. Things go quite well at the party for Lloyd, and he and Diane start dating. He is obsessed with her, and she seems to like him also, but not as much. Things seems to be going well, until Diane's father gets nervous that Diane's interest in Lloyd will interfere with the overseas scholarship she's won. Her father is also facing a very troubling audit, and he's being accused of money laundering, and Diane is fighting hard to prove her father innocent, and generally dealing with the stress her father is placing on her and the contradicting emotions she feels for Lloyd and her father. She eventually breaks up with Lloyd for her father, and Lloyd is left with the decision to let her go, or to try to win her back. And Diane is faced with choosing between her father and Lloyd. What will happen to them??!
This is a cute movie. One of the things I noted about it right away was that it's a story about true love in a world where true love is rarely found. All of the people in Lloyd's life are either in bad relationships, or were. His sister (played by his real life sister, uncredited) whom he lives with was left with a child by her boyfriend. His parents are non-existent, his best friend is always pining after a guy who cheated on her and broke up with her, and non-essential characters are constantly breaking up or fighting if they're in a relationship, or sadly alone and lamenting the idea of relationships. So Lloyd is fighting everything he knows innately about relationships to follow his heart and pursue Diane and what he believes is true love.
Another theme of the movie seems to be the value of honesty in relationships. The title of the movie is Say Anything, and this is how Diane is. She is supremely honest, both because of personality and because of her self-imposed exile from teenaged drama in favour of her studies. So she hasn't learned to lie to her dad about anything, or bend the truth to make a situation seem to be in her favour, and she doesn't try to manipulate Lloyd in any way either. As the movie progresses, she discovers that she can't always say anything she wants to anyone, because the trust she places in people may not be deserved. Lloyd has the same kind of naiveté about Diane. He completely opens himself to her, but again, does so in ignorance and is then surprised when his love isn't rewarded or returned as he wants it to be. At the same time however, though both of these characters were burned by their honesty and trust, the fact that they both possess those qualities allowed them to connect with each other, because to truly connect with a person, you have to make yourself somewhat vulnerable to them. And in the deepest relationships, you should indeed be able to say anything to the other person and expect them to return that trust and honesty.
There are a lot of 'quotables' in this movie, but one of my favourites are when Lloyd is talking to Diane's father about what he doesn't want to do when he grows up "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." For a while I felt this way and it always resonated with me. And that kind of encapsulates Lloyd. He's not a cookie cutter high schooler, and he doesn't want to be.
Though this is a lesser known 80's flick, it's just as good as 16 Candles or Pretty in Pink and all of those. The characters are real and endearing, and it's refreshing to have a romance movie not just be about romance, because it never is in real life. It's a great movie, and you should watch it if you haven't yet done so.
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