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Reviews:
Say
A Lot: Say Anything
by Christian De Matteo
Super
I just started watching the commentary
for this film. Listening to director Cameron Crowe talk and explain how
long the story took to be just right, I want to thank him. Listening to
John Cusack (The Grifters) and Ione Skye talk, I want to also
thank them. I’d want to thank them for all the hard work and deep
thought that went into this film, because, good lord, is it ever worth
it.
There is one image in the film that to
me sums up the surprise brilliance of the movie. That image is that of
Diane’s father, played wonderfully by “Friaser” Dad John Mahoney,
curled up like a child, sitting in the tub. He has a look of terror, on
his face, not just terror of being in trouble, but the terror of a man
facing the loss of everything he’s ever cared about. You might not
agree what he has done, but you can’t help but feel for him as a
father and as a man.
And this sort of emotion is the heart of
this film, the fact that this quintessential romance film has such a
deep soul to it. The relationship of Lloyd and Diane could not possibly
be farther than a TV sitcom teenage relationship, but is treated with
all the import it is both due and all the import a teenage love has to
its participants. From the now classic John Cusack with the radio
playing “Your Eyes,” to John Cusack making the payphone call in the
rain, standing outside the booth and delivering the awesome line, “I
gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen,” to the very last, excellent
second of the film before the screen goes black and the credits roll,
the film has a soul so deep you can’t help but fall into it.
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