Working Girl (1988)

I was pretty shocked to learn, after watching this film, that Mike Nichols was the director: a lighthearted, linearly-plotted chick comedy from the man behind the absurdist Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and the character-driven The Graduate, both very heavy drama indeed, is not at all what one might expect.

However, the same quality craftsmanship from the aforementioned two permeates the entirety of this deceivingly simple movie. Though Tess McGill's achievements may seem a bit far-fetched, the story works because its depiction of the New York business and finance world in which she navigates is extremely accurate. The highly sensitive maneuvering in the cutting details is played to a T. We are also treated to the insecure porcine antics of nerdy male big-name school alumni desperate to cover up for their lack of real virility or machismo, as well-as the self-conscious vacuousness of many of their female counterparts, so beautifully incarnated in Tess's boss, Katherine Parker.

Tess's plight, as well, as a frustrated woman but especially as an aging (she's 30) Bright Young Thing frustrated in her attempts to get that seal of validation for her competence and style, ring very true. It doesn't matter whether you're a man or a woman: anyone who has had to work with/for Ivy League alumni without having an Ivy League degree himself, or report to someone younger or barely older than himself, as I have, will begin rooting for Tess quite swiftly.

Harrison Ford's acting doesn't particularly stand out, but it wasn't bad. It helped that Ford was given a role with some degree of substance, though Melanie Griffith clearly outshines him. The omnipresence of Katherine's energy threatening to darken Tess's work, even when Katherine is absent, is quite remarkable, and it's almost frightening how well Sigourney Weaver, herself a Yale alumna, seemed to understand the territory in which she had to play Katherine.

All-in-all, brilliant work. Two thumbs up!

Fmovies: Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a smart, plucky, investment worker. She tries to climb the corporate ladder, but she's constantly held back by the sexist environment, and her night school college degree. When she is assigned to be Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver)'s secretary, she hoped that things would finally change. She shares a business idea with Katharine. When she finds that Katharine is claiming the idea for herself, Tess takes matters into her own hands.

The subject matter, the style, and the humor is pure 80's. The hair is insane. And there is no accounting for the fashion. It is jaw dropping and unintentionally funny.

As for the story, it's a fairly good happy rom-com from veteran director Mike Nichols. This is possibly Melanie Griffith's best work. She has just enough pluckiness and is a complete sweetheart. Sigourney Weaver is showing her comedic chops. And Harrison Ford is actually a great rom-com leading man.

I just re-watched this and I was so pleasantly surprised at how well it stands up after time. The performances are all terrific, the chemistry between Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford is very very sexy, Sigourney Weaver is very very funny as the villain, and every single one of the supporting roles ( Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, to name a few) are perfectly cast and performed to perfection. In addition, the writing is funny brisk and sharp and Nichols' direction is the same.

Although a light comedy, it captures perfectly the essence of the corporate New York office culture in the early to late 90s. For those on this board who keep writing this off as a "fairy tale," as something that simply couldn't happen, I have two words for you: Carly Fiorina :)

Working Girl fmovies. How can you go wrong with this delightful comedy? Besides having a great cast headed by Melanie Griffith, there's Harrison Ford (in one of the rare romantic comedies that suits his talents), Sigourney Weaver and wonderful Joan Cusack. And Olympia Dukakis, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey are in it too (don't blink)! A great musical score and Oscar winning song by Carly Simon, all directed by Mike Nichols, I give this two thumbs up, and a 10!

With a cast that includes Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt and Kevin Spacey, its a minor miracle Joan Cusack got any attention at all. But she did get attention, and a well-deserved Oscar nomination. She is completely hysterical and is one of the best reasons to see this fairy tale set against the big bad world of Wall Street. Her best scene is when she masquerades as Melanie's secretary and makes an offer to Harrison "Coffee, Tea, Me"?

Watching Working Girl ten years after its release, it's hard not to dismiss it as a dated satire of the corporate world of the 1980's. At the same time, that's part of the movie's charm. Even though ten years has made the costumes, hair, and production design irritating, the charm and intelligence of Mike Nichols' Cinderella story still shine through. As does the quality of the performances, which are also revealing a decade later. Harrison Ford makes a perfectly likable romantic lead while Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey offer amusingly smarmy comic performances. But the actresses walk away with the movie. Joan Cusack is hilarious in a scene-stealing turn as a Staten Island secretary, and Sigourney Weaver is great as a shrewd and conniving career woman. The brilliance of Weaver's performance is how slyly and genuinely she plays her villianous character, often decieving the audience as she decieves the characters in the movie. And finally there is Melanie Griffith who gave a star-is-born performance as the big-haired secretary who falls in love with Ford's merger specialist and smartly climbs her way up the corporate ladder after Weaver stabs her in the back. Griffith earned an Oscar nod for this performance (as did Cusack and Weaver for theirs) and it's a testament to how funny, sexy, and wonderful she is in the part that even after numerous flops and odd career moves, she's still a well-known movie star ten years later (For an opposite side at this scenario look at Jennifer Beals in Flashdance or Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing, both of whom became big stars and then fell off the face of the earth). Nichols' direction is smart, as is Kevin Wade's clever screenplay, and the light and funny romantic comedy leads up to a surprisingly suspenseful and enormously satisfying climax. All-in-all, a satisfying and amusing entertainment.