Pleasantly Surprised.... and an alternative ending.

I was pleasantly surprised that when we finally meet The Sure Thing (Nicollette Sheridan) at the end of the movie that she's not presented as shallow or dumb or tacky or sex-crazed or conceited or snobby or, indeed, anything negative, and she's in no way slut-shamed simply for being game for being set-up (with some presumption of sex) with Gibson (Cusack). Rather, she's played straight, as a genuine, good-natured, sex-positive, pretty girl who tries to be first cool with then sensitive to her date's clear distraction/agitation/rudeness. I thought this characterization of TST worked well plot-wise because it sharpened our sense that Gib is making a *real* choice to be with Allison instead. The Sure Thing isn't just a hot body she's a nice, game girl who under other circumstances Gib would be very lucky to be with.

Less impressive: We only get Gib's story version of what TST was like later on their 'date', and while we're led to believe that the story accurately conveys that Gib didn't sleep with TST, we don't know whether the suspiciously Hemingway-ish dialogue of the story happened. All-in-all, this bit of plotting was unsatisfactory and I don't quite believe it.

I think a better ending to the film would [after Allison fights with her boyfriend] have shown us a *further* interaction between TST and Gib. Gib would admit to TST in that missing scene that he's stuck on Allison and isn't up for anything with TST. He'd have to be sheepish about that and also about not knowing TST's name. She tells him her name and he apologizes to her/recognizes her humanity, gracious-ness etc as well as her beauty. [All of this would amount to the film treating TST with a little more dignity than the actual movie managed.]