In 1989, John Cusack starred in “Say Anything…,” the directorial début of a somewhat successful screenwriter named Cameron Crowe. Cusack played Lloyd Dobler, a just-graduated high-school senior who was so thoroughly the idealized first boyfriend every girl wanted that if Crowe were a woman, we would have all suspected that he was using the screenplay to live out some wish-fulfillment fantasy. As it was, Lloyd the character became conflated, in the minds of many girls of a certain age bracket, with Cusack, the actor, and many crushes were born in young women’s impressionable hearts across North America.

Sixteen years later, Cusack is still coasting on all that goodwill, despite countless horrible movies and a reputation as a real-life jackass. His latest effort, after a two-year hiatus from films, is “Must Love Dogs,” an actually decent-looking romantic comedy in which he stars opposite the age-appropriate Diane Lane. But is it possible for Cusack ever to make a romantic comedy again, for the rest of his life, without having it compared (unfavorably) to “Say Anything…”?

Tara Ariano
You know, it might not be possible for him to avoid the comparison. I am one of the legion of women who were teenagers as the ’80s rolled over into the ’90s, and Cusack’s performance in “Say Anything…” did kind of ruin me for actual, real-life, non-perfect guys for quite some time. But that’s not to say I can forgive Cusack everything: he used to be on my list of actors that made a movie, if not a must-see, at least one about which I could be cautiously optimistic; his early-’90s work in movies like “The Grifters,” “Bob Roberts,” “Bullets Over Broadway” and “Grosse Pointe Blank” made me believe he was admirably discerning in his roles. Then came “Con Air,” and if the very fact of his appearance in it wasn’t gross enough on its own, his character’s choice of footwear turned a mere career misstep into a shameful travesty.

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One word: huaraches.

So since then I haven’t really known how to feel about him. The stories I’ve heard about his real-life exploits — ranging from rudeness to waitresses (unforgivable) to a rumor that, on the long location shoots of “The Thin Red Line,” he would defecate in his pants and leave them in his foxhole for a PA to deal with (huh?) — make it hard for me to see him as that sweet little Lloyd Dobler a whole generation fell in love with. But, despite the way he’s started strolling through all his roles with a distasteful detachment — as though, if he doesn’t seem entirely committed to them, we won’t hold his movie bombs against him — “Must Love Dogs” looks cute. Don’t judge me.

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Sarah D. Bunting
I certainly won’t judge you, if you in turn agree not to judge me for what I’m about to say, namely that I’ve always thought “Say Anything…” is deeply overrated (although I love Lili Taylor in it), and that Lloyd Dobler is annoying. He’s pretentious, for starters — the kick-boxing? The “bought, sold, or processed” speech? He’s just trying way too hard, and speaking of that, the famous scene where he holds up the boom box and “In Your Eyes” is playing…I know we’re meant to find that adorably romantic, but I think it’s creepy. He’s…stalking her. I’d have given him a pen, too. In the eye. Back off, bub.

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John Cusack
July 25: "Today" host Matt Lauer talks with actor John Cusack about his role in the new movie "Must Love Dogs."
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Now that I’ve guaranteed myself a metric ton of hate mail without even addressing your question…I love some of Cusack’s early movies, like “One Crazy Summer” and “Better Off Dead” (and the scenes he’s in in “Sixteen Candles”), but I don’t love them because of Cusack; I love them because Savage Steve Holland wrote and directed. “Bullets Over Broadway,” same thing; Cusack has the Woody Allen proxy role, and he does fine with it, I suppose, but Dianne Wiest and Chazz Palminteri are the real stars. Cusack’s just kind of…there, alternating between his two facial expressions, “pop-eyed” and “hang-dog.”

So, my issue with Cusack as a romantic lead isn’t that he’s inextricably associated with “Say Anything…” — it’s that he’s Cusack, a not-great, not-cute actor (his mouth looks like a cat’s behind) who tends to play whiny, flailing characters with whom I don’t have much patience.

Apparently, I do know how to feel about him, to wit: hate!

CONTINUED: What's gone wrong for Cusack?

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