Thursday, February 13, 2014

SAVAGE CINEMA REVISITS-VALENTINE'S DAY EDITION: "THE SURE THING" (1985)

"THE SURE THING" (1985)
Screenplay Written by Steven L. Bloom & Jonathan Roberts
Directed by Rob Reiner

In the past two years, I think that we have witnessed a resurgence with true romance in the genre of romantic comedies. As you all know very well, this particular genre is not and has never been a cherished film genre for my personal tastes and sensibilities for two reasons: 1. I am typically not that swept away by movie love stories. and 2. Most of them, due to the preponderance of characters and situations that are completely unrecognizable to the ways real human beings behave and most importantly feel, just to keep the wheels of the romantic comedy formula creaking onwards.

Now I do have to say that I do not harbor any negative feelings towards movie formulas just for the sake of doing so. I honestly do not mind movies that are formulaic if they are able to engage me and tell their stories as best as they are able, ensuring that I am buying the fantasy sufficiently. When formulas work at their very best, you can almost not even see them occurring right in front of your eyes and at this time, and for a special Valentine's Day edition of my "Savage Cinema Revisits" series, I wish to turn your attention to a truly wonderful film that I think remains one of the finest romantic comedies I have seen in my lifetime and that film is Rob Reiner's "The Sure Thing."

For whatever reasons that are completely inexplicable to me, "The Sure Thing" is a film I think has fallen through the cracks so supremely that it is now largely forgotten. You will not see it playing on cable channels and it is typically not even mentioned when reading articles about Reiner's illustrious film career, which is even more surprising as "The Sure Thing" is not only Reiner's second directorial effort, it is nestled right in between his iconic rockumentary satire "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984) and equally iconic and nostalgic ode to boyhood and friendship "Stand By Me" (1986). Even Reiner himself, during the DVD commentary track for this film, acknowledges that most people have forgotten that he directed "The Sure Thing." And again, to me, it is all so inexplicable as "The Sure Thing" is as honestly funny, mature, insightful, romantic, heartfelt and as memorable as any of his films during his highly impressive streak that also includes "The Princess Bride" (1987), "Misery" (1990), "A Few Good Men" (1992) and of course, his romantic comedy classic, "When Harry Met Sally" (1989).

Now truth be told, it is possible to imagine that "The Sure Thing" could have been lost in the teen film shuffle of the 1980s as the glut of adolescent related releases combined with its potentially lascivious title could make people feel as if it was just another forgettable teen sex comedy not worth anyone's time of day. Additionally, "The Sure Thing" was originally released just a few mere weeks after Writer/Director John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club" (1985) and perhaps Hughes now iconic and definitive statement about the lives and spirits of teenagers maybe stole some of Reiner's thunder. But trust me, dear readers, I firmly believe that the characters of Rob Reiner's film are not terribly far removed from Hughes' high schoolers. In fact, the characters from "The Sure Thing" could possibly have been the older/college age siblings of those high schoolers due to their similar traits and foibles. Regardless of the hows and whys of the film's disappearance from public consciousness, I now feel it to be my duty to perform what I am able to maybe bring "The Sure Thing" back into focus as its intelligence, charm, effortless humor and urgent romance make this film perfect viewing for not only Valentine's Day but for any day of any year.

Granted, the opening credits sequence of "The Sure Thing," much like the erotic opening sequence of Writer/Director Paul Brickman's extraordinary "Risky Business" (1983), may have you wondering if Rob Reiner did actually concede to make one of those forgettable teen sex films as we are presented with the images of male driven, bikini clad, soft core fantasy cleverly set to Rod Stewart's "Infatuation." 

"The Sure Thing" properly begins with a downwards camera pan from a starry night sky onto the scene of an outdoor end-of-the-year high school Senior party, with the heartbeat sounds sounds of Huey Lewis and the News' "The Heart Of Rock And Roll" perfectly echoing the rambunctious emotions percolating through the teenage crowd. We are then and immediately introduced to Walter "Gib" Gibson (an outstanding starmaking performance by John Cusack) who is engaged in the middle of an outrageously literate and completely sophomoric soliloquy/come on towards a prospective sexual conquest which concludes with the hysterical line, "How would you like a sexual encounter so intense that it could conceivably change your political views?" Of course, Gib fails in his attempts.

Lost in rejection, Gib then takes in the counsel of his best friend, the coarse, quick witted and high partying Lance (Anthony Edwards) who is set to attend UCLA. After a playfully frank discussion of their sexual successes, failures and future hopes, Gib begins his college career in New England, where his luck in carnal matters does not improve despite the amorous activity that seems to be steadily occurring around him. Even so, Gib finds himself instantly attracted to the sharply acerbic, conservative, a bit chilly and otherwise romantically involved Alison Bradbury (a wonderful Daphne Zuniga) in his English class. Despite Gib's so-called best attempts to win her over (and possibly have sex with her), he and Alison frequently clash and his duplicitous actions ultimately and understandably infuriate and alienate her.

Gib's luck seems to be destined to change for the better after receiving a phone call from Lance, who now attends UCLA and presents Gib with the sexual opportunity of his young lifetime: to travel to California over Christmas break and be hooked up with a sexual "sure thing" (played by Nicolette Sheridan)--no strings attached, no questions asked and no guilt involved. But Gib's prurient pilgrimage is soon profoundly complicated by the surprising presence of Alison, who is unexpectedly travelling in the same ride share as Gib, also to California and to rendezvous with her long time boyfriend Jason (Boyd Gaines).

As Gib and Alison make their way to California, they are faced with a variety of obstacles from roadside abandonment (after being dumped on the side of the road by the four corners "square" and highly irritated Tim Robbins), foul weather, lack of food and money, a variety of transportation issues and conflicts, a barrage of show tunes, one creepy and sleazy trucker, dicey sleeping arrangements and most crucially, their growing attraction towards each other and the feelings of emotional conflict that confound each of them.  

For everything that I have written upon this site in celebration of John Hughes and Cameron Crowe, I have to express to you that for me, Rob Reiner's "The Sure Thing" stands as tall as anything Hughes and Crowe produced during the same period. Also like he films of Hughes and Crowe, "The Sure Thing" was a film that I watched and re-watched religiously, memorizing passages of dialogue verbatim and also allowing it to inspire me greatly once I began exploring and attempting my own creative writing. Watching it now, after not having viewed it for many, many years, I was terribly impressed to witness how, also just like the films from John Hughes and Cameron Crowe, Rob Reiner devised an experience that was simultaneously contemporary and completely in tune with mid 1980's college life, and it was also decidedly old fashioned in regards to its emphasis of romance over sex, as well as its commitment to characters over gimmicks and convoluted plots. In fact, the film "The Sure Thing" most resembles is Frank Capra's classic romantic comedy "It Happened One Night" (1934) as Reiner and his screenwriters have devised a road movie, emphasizing that actual journey--the emotional as well as the physical journey--over the final destination. And with the presence of John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga, Rob Reiner gave us the very best travelling companions we could wish to have.

I have often wondered what the trajectory of John Cusack's film career would have been if he had not taken this particular role and indeed ended up in the role he was just this close to grabbing--the role of John Bender in "The Breakfast Club," which he, of course lost to Judd Nelson! But, his loss became his, as well as our, gain as his performance as Walter "Gib" Gibson is a testament to an actor taking his leading man opportunities with ferocity, commitment, unabashed creativity and unpredictability. It is a comic tour de force performance that shows that he was not about to waste one moment of this grand opportunity.

As I stated earlier, I had many of his monologues completely memorized and as I watched the film now, I surprised myself to discover how much of those monologues have retained themselves in my memory, nearly 30 years later. One particular favorite occurs during an early scene where Gib, attempting to obtain Alison as a tutor for their shared English class, devises a ridiculous scenario of what may happen to his life should she not assist him and he subsequently flunks the class. While recounting his wild tale, which involves dead end jobs, failed drug smuggling, imprisonment and a future existence as a hobo "living in a flop house with no job, no upward mobility,...very few teeth," Gib rapidly and relentlessly paces back and forth down the length of a swimming pool in which Alison is swimming laps, desperately trying to ignore him, and concludes with throwing himself into the pool...only to have Alison sternly swim past him.

Nearly its equal is a later sequence, when Gib, now hitchhiking and pretending to be an escaped psycho, rescues the hitchhiking Alison from the clutches of a older, lonely and lascivious truck driver. In this sequence, Reiner and Cusack forge comic explosiveness tinged with a slightly darker tone as we begin to see the undercurrents of Gib's true nature, as he (and we) realize that Alison is doomed to be raped if he had not used his street smarts and was also honestly concerned and caring for her well being on the road. This is the magic of John Cusack, an actor who can effortlessly elicit a savage sardonic nature while also presenting a deep romanticism, the perfect qualities for the character and journey of Gib.

While he may announce that “I’m the kind of guy who likes to live on the edge,” as a tossed off quip, we can also see that Gib is a much deeper individual and most definitely, a much more romantic and even philosophical individual than he thinks he is and throughout “The Sure Thing,” the film gives us his journey to discovering the more mature, thoughtful, sensitive version of himself, without sacrificing his more reckless, spontaneous, carefree style. The film contains several dream sequences of Gib enjoying the illicit company of his sure thing but what they truly reveal to him is the realization of exactly what romantic realities can actually be if he just only opens himself up to embodying the romantic being he actually is rather than the sexual being he perceives himself to be.

I also really enjoyed the film's astronomical motifs as they relate to the character of Gib. Certainly the stars represent the "star crossed lovers" aspect of the overall storyline but the stars also fully represent Gib at his most sincere and earnest, attributes he downplays along with his intelligence, and creativity. Even in his Engish class, where he first writes an essay about pizza, shows how creative and skilled he is but he hides those qualities completely away in a sea of sarcastic, ironic glibness, male bravado and flat-out sloppiness ("It's all wrong. There's no punctuation. It's all one sentence," complains Alison after reading his paper.)

Walter "Gib" Gibson is a romantic hero not because he gets the girl but because he truly questions whether he should or even deserves to get he girl based upon how he views himself. "The Sure Thing" shows a young man consistently subverting his own potential until he finally begins to recognize it for himself. It is a debut starring performance unlike many I have seen throughout my life. Through his blazing comedic skills, sardonic wit and a recognizable vulnerability, John Cusack's work in "The Sure Thing" was truly one of the very finest of the 1980s teen film genre and perfectly paved the way for the very roles that have been cherished and celebrated, most notably in Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything..." (1989) and Stephen Frears "High Fidelity" (2000). But Rob Reiner had Cusack first and showed us all how deeply this actor had the goods.

In a role that was reportedly written for, and was just this close to being given to Ally Sheedy, who, of course, turned the part down to take the role of another "Alison" in "The Breakfast Club," Daphne Zuniga supremely makes the role her own so successfully that it is still difficult for me to picture Sheedy or anyone else in the part. Besides the fact that her chemistry with Cusack is natural and filled with sublime perfection, Zuniga accomplished a truly titanic feat during an era in which substantive female roles in the teen film genre were depressingly few and only really began to see an evolution with the frequency of John Hughes' films. Her performance of Alison truly felt as if this was precisely the type of girl I knew in my real life in high school, as well as college and she was a character audiences were asked to accept as a full human being to be viewed by her attributes and failings and not through her looks or sexual prowess. Certainly Daphne Zuniga is a lovely looking actress but her attractiveness is not used to define the character of Alison and just by accomplishing that feat alone, made just the sight of Alison Bradbury a revelation in 1985.

Alison Bradbury is a serious, focused, intelligent, gifted and studious young woman. But like Gib, the film takes her on her respective journey as she is also one who subverts her own potential to fully experiencing and embracing the fullness of life by creating such a boxed-in life path for herself, to which she has rigidly adhered. In one of the film's later, quieter scenes, Alison expresses to Gib her desires out of life, especially as they relate to her longtime boyfriend Jason. She hopes to become a lawyer with him and maybe even open up a practice together in Vermont. She professes that her boyfriend's directness and ability as an "achiever" is everything a girl could ever want. But then, and slowly, her own sense of romanticism reveals itself when she speaks of her desire to one day own an old farm house which she would renovate and live. Where her boyfriend thinks of it as a "good investment," she begins to soften as she just wants a place that is warm, cozy and home to Basset Hounds.

For a young woman who, at the beginning of the film, feels so sure, so unshakably certain about herself, "The Sure Thing" gives her an experience designed to make her truly ask difficult questions concerning what she truly desires and also, if she is selling herself somewhat short, especially, as she is only 18 years old and there is a world she has not yet even tasted. There is a wonderful moment set in her English class when her dynamic teacher, Professer Taub (played by veteran stage actress, the late Viveca Lindfors), informs her that while she too is a gifted writer, her paper is unfortunately very dry. And then, Taub unleashes perceptive, knowing, powerfully affectionate advice to Alison and her entire class. Additionally, her words could be the film's mission statement and it is as follows:

 "Loosen up. Have some fun. Sleep when you feel like it. Not when you think you should. Eat food that is bad for you just once in a while. Have conversations with people whose clothes are not color coordinated. MAKE LOVE IN A HAMMOCK!! Life is the ultimate experience. And you have to experience it in order to write about it."

"The Sure Thing" completely places Alison well out of her element, well out of her depth and when forced to sink or swim, she discovers just how resilient, adaptable, unpredictable, and yes, spontaneous she can actually be also without sacrificing her intelligence, ethics, and overall sense of morality plus seeing shades of love and romance that she had never quite allowed herself to touch. Daphne Zuniga conveys an elegant warmth that emanates through her intimidating visage and at times brittle personality. And over the course of the film, Reiner and Zuniga shows us not only how Alison and Gib complement each other through their differences but most importantly, just how similar they actually are.

All of those qualities are exactly what makes "The Sure Thing" exist as so much more than an "opposites attract" movie as it upholds the very best qualities of the traditional romantic comedy and nearly transcends them as well. Rob Reiner utilizes "The Sure Thing" to represent his own ruminations on the similarities and differences between men and women, how they relate, come together, fall apart and reach new levels of understanding. In fact, this film is essentially the beginning of what Reiner himself deemed as an unofficial trilogy within his own filmography as "The Sure Thing" is a precursor to "When Harry Met Sally" and Reiner's later (and I'm afraid to say, truly awful, awful film) film "The Story Of Us" (1999). Dear readers, I know that you ALL know "When Harry Met Sally" backwards and forwards. I also know that "The Story Of Us" is not worth your time and effort at all. So, that leaves "The Sure Thing" as the film to revisit or introduce yourself to as I am certain you will be as charmed, entertained and as moved as I still am.

"The Sure Thing," in addition to being a romantic comedy and love story is indeed a coming of age story, a college film and road movie all rolled into one. While filled from one end to the other with witty and entirely quotable dialogue, it is a film that is firmly rooted in an emotional reality that anchors any sense of romantic fantasy. It is a film that champions the sensibilities of young, verbose, intelligent, funny, literate, studious, playful, sexually inquisitive and most importantly, romantically fueled individuals and in doing so, the film never for an instant feels formulaic. Indeed, this film is so indebted to ensuring the two leading characters exist in the real world that you essentially do not even see the romantic comedy formula occurring in front of your eyes--as well as it should not.

You want to believe in Gib and Alison. You want to root for their love to connect and endure and that is what makes "The Sure Thing" a love story that still works so very effectively to this day and should be essential viewing by new filmmakers as a lesson to how to make movies like this sing as well as to audiences raised on much lesser romantic comedy films.

Rob Reiner's "The Sure Thing" is the real thing and on this Valentine's Day, I enthusiastically urge you to seek this film out with that special someone.

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