She's Your Ambition? Why Diane and Lloyd's Relationship Makes Sense in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything - Natalie Brunini

She’s Your Ambition?: Why Diane And Lloyd’s Relationship Makes Sense in Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything

              In Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born (2018) the plot focuses on the relationship between waitress and struggling actress, Ally (Lady Gaga), and musician Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper). As I watched the movie for the first time, I sat huddled on an airplane seat, squished between two strangers, and watched as tears silently fell down my face. I didn’t realize it was a remake at that point in time. I didn’t know how the film was going to end. I remember thinking about the film for weeks, how upset it made me that Rez, Ally’s producer, told Jackson he wasn’t good enough for her, and that led Jackson to believe that in order to free Ally he needed to kill himself. In reality, Jackson was more than enough for Ally, his ambition towards his music career led to him becoming a huge artist, which in turn jumpstarted Ally’s career. However, his own self-doubt caused him to spiral slowly towards past demons, and Rez confirming his worst fears, caused him to spiral down farther.

             Two of the greatest determinants of success for myself are doubt and ambition. I often let others’ feelings of doubt overrule my own ambition. While Jackson had ambition, I understood how he succumbed to his and others’ feelings of doubt. It’s incredibly hard to ignore the words of others which is why as I watched Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything (1989) this past week, I wondered how the relationship between Lloyd (John Cusack) and Diane Court (Ione Skye) would develop.

            The relationship between the two was sweet, but I couldn’t help but think it was somewhat sad that Lloyd’s only ambition in life was Diane, meanwhile her main ambition was shown to be a promising fellowship in England. As I started reading the discussion posts from class, I realized my classmates were much more hopeful for the relationship than I was. Soon I began to think of other relationships that reminded me of Lloyd and Diane and I was left thinking about Ally and Jackson and how both relationships had an imbalance. For Lloyd and Diane this imbalance is created due to Lloyd only having to focus on Diane, and Diane having to juggle her fellowship, her father’s incarceration, and Lloyd. Meanwhile for Ally and Jackson, this imbalance is due to her career taking off and his dwindling down due to his drug issues. While the situations are drastically different, both were met with doubt from outsiders due to these inequalities. Doubt allowed Jackson to run his life, and yet for Lloyd doubt from others seemed not to affect him strongly. Why then was I doubting Lloyd and routing for Jackson? I struggled to understand why I found myself clinging to Ally and Jackson’s relationship despite the fact that he had outside issues that were clearly bringing her down, when Lloyd was the perfect gentleman and changing Diane for the better? While Ally was left having to cancel her tour to take care of Jackson, Lloyd was helping Diane become more well-rounded.

           In the beginning of the film, Lloyd convinces Diane to come to a high school graduation party with him. The audience, and Lloyd, watch as Diane is shown chatting and smiling with her classmates and before Lloyd drops her off, Diane exclaims how happy she is that she went to the party as it finally made her feel like she fit in. Throughout the film, the audience gets the sense that Diane’s best friend is her father, and while it seems she doesn’t necessarily mind it that way, it’s clear it has caused her to miss out on certain moments. Towards the end of the film, Diane’s relationship with her father has completely changed due to her father’s theft from the senior center he owns. Lloyd not only gives Diane someone to confide in but he also helps preserve her relationship with her father. Despite having power over her father due to both his relationship with Diane and his freedom, Lloyd gives Diane’s father hope. Instead of feeling angry and hurt that Diane’s father doesn’t think he is good enough, Lloyd lets him know that while he may not have received the best letter from Diane, there’s other versions that exist, including one in which she professed she still cares deeply for him. Throughout the film, moments like these show that Lloyd is positively shaping Diane without taking anything away from her, including her important relationships.

            Yet, despite these moments, the more I thought about their relationship, the more I went back to my original worry: although he was the perfect gentleman, how can a relationship survive when that person is your only ambition? What happens if you break up? At least for Jackson, music was his ambition, and Ally was his love. As I continued to think about it, I realized how close-minded I was being. In the small Chicago suburb where I’m from, the majority of my classmates focus is fixated on getting into their top college. When I went to DePauw, I was shocked at the amount of people who said a high percentage of their classmates got married after high school graduation. I would always respond, “Seriously? That is so weird,’ because I couldn’t grasp the idea of settling down that young. Watching Lloyd be so confident about not knowing what he was doing and seeing him have no fears about being with Diane was new territory for me. He didn’t feel resentment towards her dad for thinking he wasn’t good enough, he simply brushed it off, and acknowledged that if Diane thinks he’s good enough, well then he must be.

             I’ve always separated ambition from love. I thought that ambition should be reserved for work and career goals, and that somebody certainly shouldn’t be your ambition. But Crowe’s Say Anything has altered my thought process. Diane may be Lloyd’s only ambition for now, but he’s helping her become a more well-rounded person, and I don’t think you can expect much more from a partner than what Lloyd is giving Diane. We’ve become a career-obsessed society where you’re supposed to know what you’re doing after high school, and if you don’t you appear aimless and unmotivated. Yet, between twenty to fifty percent of high school graduates enter college undecided (Freedman, “The Developmental Disconnect in Choosing a Major: Why Institutions Should Prohibit Choice until Second Year”). What I ended up appreciating about Lloyd’s character is that, unlike so many others in his place, he was never embarrassed about his lack of knowing, rather as he would say, he had ambition, just in the form of a person.

            While I first heard those lines from Lloyd and saw it as a red flag, the more I thought about it the more I realized that by following Diane to England, he’s not losing anything, instead he’s gaining a completely new experience. But more importantly, if he wants his path in life to be centered around a person, then that’s the way it should be. Because I didn’t grow up around people who put their relationships before their career as teenagers, I’ve always thought that was an odd way to live. But watching Lloyd and Diane’s relationship develop on-screen and thinking about it afterwards, I realized how much happier the two of them were at the end versus the beginning. Had Jackson met Ally before his career took off, perhaps there would’ve been a different, happier ending. While the audience will never know the ending for Diane and Lloyd, what is sure is that both of them are in the perfect spot to be figuring out life together.

Source: Freedman, Liz. “The Developmental Disconnect in Choosing a Major: Why Institutions Should Prohibit Choice until Second Year.” The Mentor: An Academic Advising Journal, vol. 15, 28 June 2013.