Say It Isn't So is a 2001 American romantic black comedy film produced by The Farrelly Brothers, directed by J. B. Rogers, and starring Chris Klein and Heather Graham.
In the town of Shelbyville, Illinois, Gilly Noble (Klein) falls in love with hairdresser Jo Wingfield (Graham). Unfortunately, just as they're about to tie the knot, a private detective shows Gilly proof that he is actually Jo's long-lost brother. Horrified at the thought that she had sex with her brother, Jo flees to Beaver, Oregon while Gilly tries to console himself with the fact that at least he apparently has a biological family. When it later turns out that Gilly isn't Jo's brother, he embarks on a quest to find her and bring her home.
This film contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: As though Valdine trying to get Jo to marry someone for money wasn't bad enough, she is not only coldly dismissive of Leon's own efforts to bond with her, but after Leon is revealed to have killed a man after coming to the wedding against her wishes, she starts beating him for ruining her plans.
- An Arm and a Leg: Dig lost both of his legs in a plane crash and uses prosthetics.
- Ass Shove: At one point, Gilly gets his hand stuck in a cow's rear end.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Dig declares that he will repay Gilly tenfold for giving him a lift.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Leon might appear to be a friendly person who just wants to know his birth family, but he ultimately rams a truck and accidentally kills a man in order to please his mother.
- Brother–Sister Incest: The whole plot hinges on the idea that Gilly and Jo might be engaging in this.
- The Determinator: Even being mugged, knocked out and dumped on a plane out of Beaver won't stop Gilly finding his way back.
- Diagnosis: Knowing Too Much: Valdine tries to convince Jo that Gilly has gone insane to stop her listening to his story, telling Jo that Gilly now has an imaginary friend he "believes" is Jo's brother rather than himself. This deception is exposed at Jo's wedding to Jack when the real Leon appears, prompting Walter to admit the truth.
- Ear Ache: Gilly and Jo's first meeting features Jo accidentally cutting off the top of Gilly's right ear while giving him a haircut.
- Everyone Has Standards: Walter went along with Valdine's plans at first, but seeing Jo so sad about Gilly's apparent death drives him to admit the truth.
- Gold Digger: Valdine's goal is to get access to Jack Mitchelson's money.
- Handicapped Badass: Dig lost both his legs in a plane crash but confidently declares that he can still fly anything, and generally does his best even when his legs are thrown away.
- Hidden Villain: Jack Mitchelson is ultimately revealed to be the one who helped Valdine set up the fake evidence that Gilly was Jo's brother in order to lure her back to him.
- I Love the Dead: When Gilly is attending therapy for his apparent interest in his own sister, one of the other patients mentions that he and his wife had sex three to four times a week after her death (although it's not clear if he killed her or she just died of natural causes).
- Love-Obstructing Parents: Valdine wants Jo to marry the wealthy Jack Mitchelson over the poorer Gilly, and resorts to increasingly desperate methods to achieve this.
- Manipulative Bastard: Jack repeatedly works to maintain his influence over the town while hiding his true nature from Jo.
- Meet Cute: Gilly and Jo first meet when Gilly goes for a haircut from Jo and she mentions that her cat is missing, and her description of the cat matches one that Gilly found at the animal shelter.
- Mistaken for Incest: The entire plot involves two lovers whose relationship comes to an abrupt halt when a private detective tells them that they're long-lost siblings. When the guy finds out that the detective was mistaken, he sets off on a quest to find the girl, who has since moved to a different town.
- Mistaken for Suicidal: At the end, Gilly sees Jo standing on the edge of a building with a gun and thinks she's going to kill herself, but it turns out she was just giving the one-gun salute to what she thought was Gilly's ashes.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Dig claims that he has heritage to several different Native American nations.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When Leon appears at the wedding, seeing Jo's devastation at the idea that Gilly is dead prompts Walter to admit Valdine's deception and Jack's assistant in faking the evidence that Gilly was Jo's brother, leaving Jo outraged at the revelation.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!:
- At one point three of Jack's henchmen have taken Gilly out to an isolated area and are prepared to beat him up, but the man preparing to take the first blow wasn't wearing his glasses and so he hits one of the other henchmen holding Gilly still, which gives Gilly time to fight off the remaining henchman holding his other arm and escape.
- One of Jack's henchmen steals Gilly's truck and the ring Gilly was going to use to propose to Jo before he is run off the road by Leon, exposing the truth of Valdine's nature to Jo as the revelation of Gilly's apparent death and Leon's existence confirms to Jo that Gilly was telling the truth that he wasn't her brother.
- Really Gets Around: Jack Mitchelson may be planning to marry Jo, but he is shown carrying on at least one other affair with a local cop who is fully aware that he's about to get married.
- Selective Obliviousness: Valdine immediately declares that Gilly is a charlatan grifter when she learns that he isn't her son, even though he would have hardly done all that if he'd known the truth (although this may be justified as Valdine overcompensating to hide her role in faking the original evidence that Gilly was her son to break him and Jo up).
- Spanner in the Works: Valdine's plan to break up Gilly and Jo is ruined when Leon, Jo's actual brother, tracks down his biological parents on his own accord shortly before Jo's wedding to Jack, giving Gilly incentive to go after Jo and expose Jack's true nature.
- Sucky Salon Visit: Jo mainly gets customers in her first job in a salon because she's attractive, even though she's so bad that she does a very random hacking job of cutting peoples' hair, even cutting Gilly's ear in half (although in her defence she was excited at the realisation that he'd found her lost cat).
- Surprise Incest: The revelation that Gilly might be Jo's biological brother comes just as they are about to marry.
- Swapped Roles: Walter spends most of the film basically crippled by a stroke, but the film ends with him back to full health and Valdine afflicted by a stroke instead after her plans to get Jo to marry Jack Mitchelson have been exposed and ruined.
- That Came Out Wrong:
- Gilly's attempt to tell Jo the truth with a banner declaring he's not her brother goes wrong when part of the sign is damaged as he and Dig lift off, so it looks like he's proposing while still believing he's her brother.
- Gilly tells Jo that he bought her underwear and naked pictures from a pervert at the mental hospital without providing context (he just bought them from one of Jack's henchmen to stop the other man selling them to anyone else).
- Villain with Good Publicity: Jack Mitchelson is a scumbag pot dealer who hides behind the guise of a wealthy philanthropist; his reputation is so good that Dig has to praise him in public as he feels he can't trust anyone else in the town.