Student Gib, who attends a Northeastern American college, receives a letter from his friend Lance from California who invites him to his Christmas party, promising him a "sure thing", a girl who will definitely sleep with him. Gib thus decides to travel 3,000 miles to California, but a couple with whom he shares a car ride to there also picked up Alison, Gib's former tutor, who wants to visit her boyfriend Jason, who studies law. Alison and Gib argue so much that the couple dumps them on the road in the middle of nowhere. Gib and Alison go through numerous misadventures, but finally arrive to California. Gib meets the "sure thing" girl at the party, but eventually chooses not to have sex with her. Back in the Northeastern college, the professor reads Gib's essay explaining that he didn't love the girl, but someone else. Alison realizes Gib loves her, and they end up as a couple.
"The Sure Thing" was made during the director Rob Reiner's incredibly lucky 8-year streak between "This is Spinal Tap" and "A Few Good Men", when he unexpectedly handed over one hailed film after another, almost all of which entered the cinematic hall of icons with at least one quote that became famous. In this unusual teenage comedy remake of Capra's masterwork "It Happened One Night", the story is refreshingly rare in depicting teenage characters as flawed, but still able to learn and achieve intelligent character growth, and features the excellent John Cusack in a grand cinematic entrance in his first leading role as Gib, while Daphne Zuniga is equally as wonderful and charming as Alison. The viewers have already seen this story a thousand times: a guy and a girl argue and bicker all the time, but in the end fall in love. And yet, it is done with enough charm, spirit and humor to keep it interesting throughout (some of the best moments are when Gib tries to persuade Alison swimming in the swimming pool to tutor him, but as she keeps ignoring him, he simply falls into water in front of her; during the rain, Gib and Alison are out on the road, but she realizes she has her dad's credit card—cue to Gib saying: "Too bad only this place accepts credit cards", as we see them dinning at the table in high class, eating salmon). The jokes could have been funnier, and not all episodes on their road trip are equally as engaging. Nonetheless, "The Sure Thing" works and is even emotional in the end—so much, in fact, that one wonders why the movie never reached the cinematic hall of fame of Reiner's other movies from this era, since it is equally as worthy of a contribution to his laconic opus.
Grade:++
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