The Enigmatic Appeal Of John Cusack.

This is John Cusack. Take a good look. Although he doesn't appear to be your typical leading man, he has acted in over 70 films, many of which as the main character. On multiple occasions he alone has carried the weight of a film. So what makes him so special? What exactly is the appeal of John Cusack?

To pinpoint the forces contributing to Cusack's rise to success, let's look at his early years, particularly the films of 1985 - 1989. During this five year period, he picked up numerous leading roles as the high school graduate coming of age. These films include Say Anything, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing and One Crazy Summer. Upon close inspection, there is a clear thread running through each of these films. Cusack, you might say, found his niche in this period and has portrayed variations on this typecast ever since. Spoilers ahead.

In Rob Reiner's 1985 comedy The Sure Thing, John Cusack plays Walter 'Gib' Gibson, a fast talking writer who fails at love time and again. With a premise that's as 80s as the shoulder pads and rolled up sleeves of Gib's sports jacket, Gib's best friend Lance (post Revenge of the Nerds Anthony Edwards) promises him a no strings attached one night stand with blonde Nicollette Sheriden. To achieve this goal, Gib travels 3000 miles with Alison. Alison and Gib are polar opposites and argue the entire journey, but inevitably Gib chooses not to hook up with 'the sure thing', realising it's brunette Alison he loves.

The films ends with the new couple kissing, the teenage version
of ending with a wedding.

In Savage Steve Holland's 1985 comedy Better Off Dead, John Cusack plays Lane Myer, a suicidal cartoonist who has recently been dumped by aloof girlfriend Beth. With the aid of best friend Charles (post Revenge of the Nerds Curtis Armstrong) and French exchange student Monique, Lane attempts to win Beth back by skiing the K-12 against Beth's jock boyfriend. After the obligatory training montage, Lane wins the race and realises it's brunette Monique he loves, not blonde Beth.

Same ending, different brunette.

In Savage Steve Holland's unofficial sequel to Better Off Dead, the 1986 comedy One Crazy Summer, John Cusack plays Hoops McCann, a fast talking cartoonist who fails at love time and again. With the aid of a group of misfit friends (including post Revenge of the Nerds Curtis Armstrong), he helps brunette Cassandra earn enough money to buy her grandfather's house back from the bank. In order to save it from developers, they must compete in a regatta against jock Teddy and his preppy friends. After the obligatory building the ship montage, Hoops and his crew win the race, which somehow saves the house, he gets the girl, and they live happily ever after.

Animated, but still the same ending.

In Cameron Crowe's 1989 film Say Anything, John Cusack plays Cameron Crowe stand-in Lloyd Dobler, a fast talking kick boxer who has no aspirations in life other than to be with high school valedictorian Diane. Lloyd and Diane date for awhile, but as she is preparing to leave for Oxford, she ends the relationship and inadvertently breaks Lloyd's teenage heart. With the aid of a group of misfit friends and some questionable subliminal audio manipulation, Lloyd wins Diane back. Stepping into the paternal guardian role left vacant by Diane's incarcerated father, Lloyd travels to England with Diane where they will presumably live happily ever after.

Is it just me or is there some weirdly racist overtones in these
movies, subtly suggesting that blondes should stick with blondes,
and brunettes with brunettes?

Gib, Lane, Hoops and Lloyd can all be summed up in these five statements:

• He is a fast talking, borderline manic personality.
• He is a hopeless romantic who suffers from a broken heart.
• He appears to be a slacker but is, in fact, an expert in one specific, typically useless capacity.
• He exists on the fringe, yet is able to interact with a variety of cliques.
• He is the most unlikely to succeed. In essence, the perpetual underdog - the 'everyman'.

The audience identifies with each of Cusack's characters because he is how we see ourselves – sensitive, different, secretly special. We live vicariously through his actions. Consider the house party scene in Say Anything:

MIKE

Yeah, hey, oh god. Listen, I wanted to... I don't know you very

well, you know, but I wanted to ask you, how did you get Diane

Court to go out with you?

LLOYD

I called her up.

MIKE

Yeah, but how come it worked? I mean like, what are you?

LLOYD

I'm Lloyd Dobler.

MIKE

This is great, this gives me hope.

Not only does it give asexual punk Mike hope, it gives all of us hope. If John Cusack can score 80s 'it' girl Ione Skye, then there is hope for the rest of us. This is the tenet that John Cusack built his career upon and, regardless of how good an actor he is, why we can't help but liking him.