The Replacement by Lauren

Lauren Leal

4/21/20

Romantic Comedy

Paper #3

When I first read the prompt for this paper assignment, I felt instantly unsure of what to write about as I’m sure many of you felt the same way. I hadn’t really felt as if I could provide a personal connection to any aspects of the movies that we’ve seen so far, but then I watched Cameron Crowe’s 1989 Say Anything. I really do believe this movie was perceived to be a fun, lighthearted movie when in actuality, I think Crowe meant for it to carry a deeper, more serious message to his audience. The film gives its viewers the inside look of Diane’s (Ione Skye) journey through character development as a plot line which cloaks a less recognizable plot line that Crowe subtly carries out through the entirety of the film. By slowly having Lloyd (John Cusack) take the place of Mr. Court (John Mahoney), Crowe delivers the bold statement that the boyfriend rises up to replace the father’s role in the life of his daughter.

You might be thinking, “Bold statement? How is this different from the other movies we’ve encountered?”. It is true that a plot line involving a male protagonist overcoming the father as an obstacle to win the bride has already been established, we learned this from reading “The Argument of Comedy” written by Northrop Frye. However, what’s unique about Say Anything is that Lloyd’s goal wasn’t to overcome Mr. Court to win Diane as a bride. Instead, Lloyd filled the holes that were created by the absence of Mr. Court as he slowly became less of an essential and vital figure in Diane’s life. Lloyd does come to replace Mr. Court just as Frye suggests would happen in a New Comedy plot line, however, Say Anything satisfies Frye’s claim by taking a different approach other than his suggested pin-the-male-against-the-father or the-father-is-an-obstacle traditional plot line. In a nontraditional fashion, the replacement is an outcome that is neither brought about by Diane directly choosing to replace her dad with Lloyd, nor Lloyd actively fighting to overcome the father as an obstacle. Rather it is brought about in a more natural sense and just happens as a result of the father's legal situation.

I connected deeply with Diane Court throughout this movie as I truly saw myself in her position. She is an individual who lacks friends because she focused heavily on her schooling during high school. Because of this, she missed out on some key parts in life such as going to social parties, having thrilling memories to share with friends, or having a sense of ecstasy in her life. It was difficult for me to develop friendships throughout my high school experience, but not because of my dedication to schoolwork as in Diane’s case. I avoided social gatherings that revolved around alcohol, which unfortunately were the only gatherings anyone ever seemed interested in. Being against those social functions, I struggled with meeting new people and making friends and I was ok with staying home. I spent a lot of time with my dad and we built an amazing bond. By not breaking the law, running around, or lying to my dad, I enjoyed not having to suffer from the anxiety that something was looming over my head that could potentially be a stressor to our bond.

From the very beginning of the movie the connection between Diane and her dad was instantly recognizable. Within the first few minutes we see that her dad’s advice matters a lot to Diane as she is nervously running through her graduation speech asking for his thoughts. When they came home and discussed how the speech went, the audience then witnessed the comfort level that had been established in the relationship between Diane and her dad. She is able to open up to her dad and tell him how she feels, “I was standing up there looking at all the people and I felt like they didn’t know me”, which is unusual for a teenager to do with a parent. The reason I’m close with my dad is not the same reason for which Diane is close with hers, but I felt that I could equate myself to her feeling of not having friends as soon as she said this.

By the first 10 minutes of the film Diane has already relied on her dad for advice and has also confided in him. This enables the audience to see how much Diane leans on her dad and how he offers her a sense of stability. The significance of Mr. Court in Diane’s life is monumental as he is not only her father, but he must also fulfill the role of being her best friend. Diane does not establish connections with her peers and her dad is willing to dedicate building his life around her. This leads to her becoming dependent on her dad; that is, until Lloyd enters the picture.

Throughout the entirety of the first date, Diane progressively gets more comfortable about going out and about being around Lloyd. We clearly see in the beginning of the night she is timid and unsure about her decision to go with him to the party. When she’s in Lloyd’s car, her discomfort is visible through how tense and unrelaxed her body looks. One of the first things she says to him is, “Would it be terrible if I wanted to go home early?”. But as the night carries on she never finds herself asking for this to happen. At the end of the night when she sticks with Lloyd until sunrise driving around and helping Mike Cameron get home, a change in her demeanor is noticed. She is relaxed, smiling, laughing, and clearly enjoying her time spent with Lloyd.

Just as Diane had opened up to her dad in the beginning of the film about no one knowing her, she also opens up to Lloyd regardless of having just met him. When talking about what people wrote in her yearbook Diane said: “Listen to some of the things they wrote me. “Glad I finally met you”, “You always seemed nice”, “Wish I could have gotten to know you more”. Nobody knew me before tonight”. But because she decided to accept Lloyd’s invitation to go to the party, she experienced something new. She says, “I feel like I fit in for the first time”, and that is thanks to Lloyd’s ability to draw her out of her comfort zone and go to a party. Before the end of the date, she opens up to him again when discussing her personal life and her experience involving the end of her parents marriage even though she had only known him for a few hours. Just as she had relied on her dad to be someone she could tell her feelings too about graduation earlier in the film, the audience sees that she quickly becomes comfortable enough to do the same with Lloyd. 

The audience, as well as Diane, is able to see Lloyd’s care and concern for her throughout the night as he makes sure to keep an eye on her as she moves about the party. A second instance of care and concern being displayed, was the broken glass scene at the end of the date. This really sticks out to Diane when he stops her, kicks the glass away, and pulls her away from where the glass was. Ironically, this all happened while she talks about how being with her dad made her feel safe.

It was at this moment, when the long shot view appeared, that I really noticed her outfit. The white color of her dress symbolizes the innocence that she has from not experiencing a typical teenage life. What also shows her inexperience is the fact she wore a relatively formal dress to a casual party. It’s through the color and the style of the dress that the audience understands her lack of exposure to a life outside of her studies. However, by putting her wants first and protecting her, as her father has done all her life, and by providing her a fun experience, Lloyd has given her a desire to want to spend more time with him during the sixteen weeks she has left before moving to England. This is where Lloyd’s significance in her life starts to magnify.

As I explained earlier, I felt I could relate to Diane very early on in the movie because of the isolation she felt from peers throughout high school and the close relationship she had with her dad, but what really hit home for me was the influence Lloyd had on Diane’s life. I too, had my own version of a “Lloyd” who altered my life in the span of a summer just as Lloyd altered Diane’s. Of all the romantic relationships we have encountered throughout this course, the love that develops between Lloyd and Diane is the most raw, wholesome, and genuine because he gave her access to an aspect of life she hadn’t experienced before due to the fact that having a lack of friends sheltered her from experiencing a certain side of life. Like Diane, I never really understood what I was missing out on until a real life “Lloyd Dobler” unexpectedly entered into my life at the beginning of the summer before senior year and pulled me out of my comfort zone. 

We spent our time together watching sunsets, star gazing, hiking, driving with the windows down blasting the music and screaming along to songs. We spent countless hours together laughing, getting to know each other, and finding out that we had so much in common. We had facetime calls that lasted until sunrise. We’d bake desserts for dinner and dance in the kitchen while they cooked. We truly became best friends who could confide in one another. When I watched Diane and Lloyd spend virtually every second together for their summer, a feeling overcame me as I remembered the summer I met him. 

Just like Diane, my life went from it just being my dad and me, to this boy and me. We spent what felt like a lifetime together, until that lifetime ended the fall of the following year when he was taken from me. I experienced an incredible loss and a very difficult period of grief filled with counseling sessions. I hated telling adults or peers that I was in love with him because as a teenager, no one truly believes you when you say you love someone. But that boy was so much more than a boyfriend for me, just as Lloyd was more than just a boyfriend in Diane’s life. I felt like my horizons opened up, my world had expanded, and with his help I saw a side of myself and a side of life I never knew existed and I loved him more than I can express. 

Watching Diane go through a similar self-discovery process that I did, was what caused me to feel so emotionally connected to this film. Diane went from being so tunnel visioned, unsure, and timid when Lloyd first enters her life, to being joyful and carefree. Lloyd was able to get her out of her comfort zone, grounding her to life and exposing her to the world in a new way. He became her lifeline connecting her to the side of life filled with emotional attachment. As viewers, we unfortunately don’t get many specific details of the time spent between Lloyd and Diane’s as Crowe used a film editing technique called continuity editing to compress the time leading up to her departure. 

As time evolved though, not only did we see a character development in Diane becoming more open to life, we also witnessed her relying less on her dad. This created the opportunity for Lloyd to step up as someone she could lean on and draw support from just as she had always gotten from her dad. As a result of the issues between Mr. Court and the IRS intensifying, Mr. Court creates holes in her life with his absence that she is able to turn to Lloyd to have filled. For example it was supposed to be her Dad who teaches her how to drive, but instead we see Lloyd becoming responsible for that task. Lloyd provides the elements of her life which she was always missing from a peer her age: companionship, summer memories, and love. Lloyd is also able to fulfill a role in her life which has always been filled by her dad: confidant, teacher, and best friend. The significance of this bond between Lloyd and Diane becomes exceedingly essential for Diane when her relationship with her father suffers an unexpected and seemingly fatal blow. 

With Mr. Court being sent to prison, we see how Lloyd is able to naturally take over the roles previously filled by him. This was done with relative ease because this was a transition already occurring slowly throughout the course of the film while the audience members were perhaps focusing more on Diane’s decision to stay in America or take the fellowship. Instead of her dad, it is Lloyd who is not only there for her when it is time for Diane to leave, but it is also him who is the one going with her. Just as Mr. Court has been willingly to do all her life, Lloyd is willing and dedicated to building a life completely around Diane and goes so far as to move to England with her to make this happen. The shift in reliance that Diane undergoes is how Frye’s claim of boyfriend-replaces-father comes to life instead of the traditional marriage ending.

While the endings of a majority of our films ended in marriage, Say Anything takes Frye’s path in a unique way. The audience doesn't know how the rest of Diane and Lloyd’s life together ends up playing out, but we have every reason to assume it went well. Diane was so dependent on her dad and is now dependent on Lloyd’s presence in her life as she has never been on her own. This dependence will increase for both Diane and Lloyd as they start a life together in a place where they only know each other. In the final seconds of the film, it is Lloyd who is holding onto Diane and talking to her to help calm her fears about flying. This reassures us that Lloyd has the same care for Diane as her father always had for her, giving us hope that their relationship will survive.