reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (03/12/85)
"The Sure Thing" is an absolutely charming romantic comedy
which surprisingly owes more to 1930s comedies than it does to
the seemingly interminable string of horny teenager movies which
have cluttered up theaters for the past few years. Rather than
dealing exclusively with overactive hormones and kneejerk defi-
ance of authority, "The Sure Thing" is about love and maturing.
Moreover, it is just about the only accurate picture of college
life that I've seen in the movies.
"The Sure Thing" is about a couple of college students (both
freshmen, or freshpersons, if you insist) going to an Ivy League
type university in the East. He's a very typical specimen of a
male college student: bright, lazy, irresponsible, probably a lot
of fun to be with. She's beautiful, very intelligent, overly or-
ganized, and bit priggish (but, none the less, "OK deep down in-
side"). He's smitten the moment he sees her; she's decidedly
unimpressed. She already has a boyfriend, a prospective lawyer
going to UCLA. As played by John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga,
these two have to be one of the most appealingly mismatched pairs
since Clark Gable stumbled over Carol Lombard running away from Daddy.
Cusack makes some charmingly clumsy plays for her, but Zuni-
ga takes herself far too seriously to see beyond his ineptitude,
so in no time at all they aren't talking to each other. Imagine
their surprise when they discover that they're sharing a ride out
to the West coast over the Christmas break. She's going to visit
her boyfriend, and he is going to visit the eponymous "sure
thing", a tanned California beauty who, sight unseen, has decided
that she wants to go to bed with him. (She just got out of a
parochial school and is in her "experimental phase"). What red-
blooded American boy could pass up that opportunity, particularly
when his love life hasn't been going too well, anyway?
The ride is being offered by an absolutely dreadful couple,
the epitome of all blind rides. Not only do they sing show tunes
and play stupid games, but they sulk if their sullen passengers
don't join in. Of course, Zuniga's and Cusack's constant sniping
doesn't help matters, and in no time at all they find themselves
dumped in the Midwest in the middle of winter, with no option but
to hitchhike to California together. All of us who have spent
our lives taking Hollywood 101 know what comes next, but no
matter. As in almost all good Hollywood movies, the important
thing isn't where the film is going, but how it gets there.
"The Sure Thing" gets there on wit, skilled pacing, and su-
perb chemistry between the two leading players. It's not a film
of surprises, but of skillfully played, pleasingly familiar
chords. The credit can be divided up nicely between Cusack,
Zuniga, screenwriters Steven Bloom and Jonathan Roberts, and
director Rob Reiner. Bloom and Roberts have studied their Holly-
wood mythology very well; the situations aren't new, but they are
tried and true winners. Their real achievement is how well they
have modernized the conventions of 1930s movies to fit so well
into the 1980s. A man and a woman hitchhiking together has very
different connotations now than then, but, without blindly avoid-
ing those differences, Bloom and Roberts have preserved what made
the original attractive. The pair are also to be commended for a
very true portrayal of college life. The level of craziness is
about right, and they suggest that many college students do spend
some time studying and going to classes. Games of two on two
football, sneaking up to the roof of the library, writing a paper
while eating a pizza: this is college the way it really is.
Reiner directs the film with a sure, steady hand, belying
the fact that this is only his second film (the first being "This
is Spinal Tap", which was quite hilarious, in a very different
way). Reiner's respect for his characters is quite refreshing.
I don't think any of the other supposed college films of recent
years really gave a damn about any of the characters, but Reiner
cares about his kids, and he's skilled enough to make us care,
too. His pacing is also quite nice. "The Sure Thing" never bogs
down or spends too long on irrelevancies; nor does it rush us
past any of its several delightful moments. My only complaint is
that Reiner and the screenwriters made the Ralph Bellamy part a
bit too unsympathetic. (Ralph Bellamy almost invariably played
the dull suitor who loses the leading lady to Cary Grant or Wil-
liam Powell or Gary Cooper or James Stewart in the screwball
comedies of the thirties. Howard Hawks got a lot of fun out of
this in "His Girl Friday", which, incidentally, is a must see
whenever it shows up.) Zuniga's boyfriend is too stolid and
stultifying for words. One can't see how even a straightlaced
young woman would ever fall for him.
Cusack and Zuniga are perfect in their parts. Zuniga is the
very epitome of a future Yuppie coed, of the subclass that takes
life very, very seriously. And yet, down underneath we can al-
ways tell that there's a hidden desire to do something a little
bit crazy, a desire which has been hidden even from herself. So,
the question is, will she be rescued from the dull prince by the
lively jester, or will she be doomed to a dull life of convention
and routine? Cusack is also excellent as a young man who has al-
most everything a woman would want, except maturity. One of the
nice points made in "The Sure Thing" is that, while looseness and
a spirit of adventure is good, there's also something to be said
for responsibility and commitment. Cusack has some things to
learn, too, and the great strength of his performance is how well
he shows us his maturation. Zuniga and Cusack work extremely
well with each other, and it would be a great pity if they didn't
make more films together.
"The Sure Thing" is a lovely little movie, most definitely
of the type they supposedly don't make any more. It wouldn't be
quite fair to stack it up against the greatest of the classic
comedies of the thirties, but it's probably the closest thing
I've seen from the last twenty years, much more so than "What's
Up Doc", and certainly far truer to their spirit than the gen-
erally dismal films of Dudley Moore. (Reviving an old joke, "The
Sure Thing" is the picture they said couldn't be made: a romantic
comedy which doesn't star Dudley Moore.) "The Sure Thing" is, in
fact, the perfect film to go to with your unrequited love (always
assuming that s/he will accompany you). Perhaps this sweet and
satisfying story of two people who unexpectedly turned out to be
made for each other will convince them that you're not such a
hopeless case, either.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@ucla-cs.arpa
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher