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Working Girl

Working Girl

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fun movie with a "right on!" ending
Review: Some times you just want to watch a movie that is fun, the good guys are likeable, and the bad "guy" is fun to dislike. This is one to watch.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Oh, to be 30 again!
Review: When I first saw this movie, I was about 25 years old, and when I heard that the two women characters were both 30, I thought to myself, "How old!" Ahem. Now being a few years past 30 myself, I'm thinking, "wow, Sigourney Weaver had gotten so far so young!" Shows you what 15 years'll do for ya.

Just saw it for only the second time the other night at the New-York Historical Society, tie in to their "Women in Business" exhibit with a gaggle of girlfriends. I was a little antsy, because I was afraid maybe it wasn't going to be as good as I recalled. But thanks be, it was! And the girlfriends all loved it, too, except that Lorraine wondered why it was her coworker's favorite movie. I can't answer that, but it's a great ride notwithstanding.

Melanie Griffith turns in her best performance as our Working Girl, an extremely competent would-be businesswoman. Trouble is, with her big hair, jingle jangle bangles, and questionable wardrobe, she's having a hard time being taken seriously. Finally, she gets assigned as secretary to a female boss, Sigourney Weaver, who epitomizes class and breezy elegance. Melanie thinks she's found her mentor at long last, only to discover, while running errands for the hospitalized Weaver, that the lady boss has stolen her Big Idea. Then she finds her boyfriend in bed with another woman. All this pushes her over into making a wild reach for the brass ring by stealing the clothes and business contacts of the absent Weaver and hacking off that head of hair to steal back her own idea and make it work. Along the way, she attracts the attentions of banker Harrison Ford and together they scramble to pull off the deal, Ford not in on her true identity as a mere secretary.

The only thing that's a bit much in the movie is too much gratuitous Merry Widow lingerie, but small complaint for a really fun, really good movie. Although there's the usual "oh no!" kind of climax, rest assured that the righteous come out on top after all.

"Working Girl" still works, after all these years. Check it out!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: FOR ANYONE WHO HATES THEIR JOB AND BOSS!
Review: Director, Mike Nichols' "Working Girl" is bar none, the high point of all those feel good, capitalism-driven, Cinderella stories from the 1980's. Melanie Griffith is Tess McGill, a faithful war-horse of a secretary who is exploited and abused by her various employers. But when she lands a job working for Katherine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) all Tess' woes seem to be at an end - that is, until Katherine steals one of Tess' great ideas for a merger and radio venture. Here's the wrinkle - Kate breaks her foot skiing and is forced to rely on Tess who, as payback, steals the idea back from Katherine and runs off with the show. How does it end - with a positive spin, (in short supply these days) a bunch of laughs (equally in short supply) and Harrison Ford (never looking better and playing comedy with a flair that makes one wish he had done more in this genre) making peanut butter and jelly. Don't ask. If you've never seen this one you should.
FOX VIDEO has given us a non-anamorphic transfer. That's the bad news. The good news is that the transfer, despite this one shortcoming, is pretty much a pristine effort. Colors are dated but bold, rich and vibrant. Blacks are black. Contrast levels and shadow delineation are bang on. The soundtrack, though dated, is well represented and has a nice spacial spread across the speakers. There are no extras. For a movie that was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, this disc should have come with more features. Oh, well - at least we have an enjoyable print to view.
BOTTOM LINE: Yes.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Immensely entertaining!
Review: Mike Nichols' WORKING GIRL is, simply put, immensely entertaining! It has a great cast (Ford is funny, Griffith is at her best, Weaver is perfectly cast, and there's even a cameo from Kevin Spacey), great directing, great music (theme by Carly Simon), great editing, everything's top notch. It's really a great movie. This DVD's pretty good too. A lot of fun!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: New York City Skyline
Review: I had seen this one before -- an unobjectionable chick-flick. Melanie likes Harrson better than Alec (smart girl) and he likes her better than Sigorney (smart man).

But what is so startling, is to watch it now, after 9/11/01, and see the role that the New York City skyline plays in the setting and feeling of this movie. Backed with Carly Simon's soaring "New Jerusalem" soundtrack, this makes you think.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: funny, sassy and romantic
Review: Even though this movie is too old, I did enjoy it. You can see Harrison Ford at his worst act performance. The plot of the movie is magnificent, the music score has reached an amazing level and the performance of Melanie Griffith was brilliant. It tells the story of a young intelligent girl who works at the stock market where no body appreciates her work. Then, she moves to a different work as a secretary to Sigourney Weaver the manager of a big company. Melanie Griffith tells her boss a grate idea but she steals it. The coolest part of this movie is its ending.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great fun...
Review: Working Girl is a very pleasant and entertaining movie. It is well directed and features a funny script and excellent performances by Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver. Melanie Griffith is quite good as well, although she sometimes appears a little more childish than would be expected given her ambition to rise to the top.

Essentially, Working Girl is about Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), an ambitious secretary eager to move up in the working world. After having several problems with her male bosses, Tess is relieved when she is transfered to work under the confident and seemingly friendly Katherine Parker (Sigourney Weaver). After Parker breaks her leg and Tess realizes she was planning to steal one of her ideas, however, Tess takes matters into her own hands and, posing as Parker, joins with successful executive Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) to promote the deal herself.

Anyhow, the results of Tess McGill's attempts to advance in her job are very entertaining and often very funny. The scenes with Tess and Jack are especially humorous - for instance, as they walk towards the elevator in one scene, Jack repeatedly asks Tess for a date, but she refuses. When he insists, she responds, "You know, maybe I just don't like you." Jack looks up in surprise and, as the elevator doors close, says, "Me? Nah!"

So, overall, this is a very delightful and fun movie that shows the obstacles people sometimes face in the workplace. In it, Harrison Ford shows his ability for light comedy, Weaver is perfect as the calculating and evil boss, and Griffith is pretty good as Tess. On another more serious note, this movie has some of the most beautiful images of the World Trade Towers and the New York City skyline I have ever seen. These images are sadly moving in a way that could never have been imagined when the movie was first made.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A New Jerusalem?
Review: The opening of WORKING GIRL set to the strains of Carly Simon's "Let the River Flow" is still powerful 14 years after its release in 1988. And WORKING GIRL is still a fun and satisfying film about Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), a working class girl who is trying to realize the American dream. I liked the film back in 1988, and I still like it in 2002, though I now find I have some reservations about the basic premises of the film.

But let's start with the strengths. Mike Nichol's film is well-crafted from top to bottom. The screenplay moves along briskly to a satisfying conclusion, as Tess overcomes both prejudice and a deceitful boss in order to realize her ambition of becoming a real business executive. The acting is top-notch across the board. Griffith gave a career performance in this film -- letting us see both the vulnerability and the underlying grit of her character. In the real world, people in her situation are not likely to achieve what Tess achieves, and Griffith shows how frightening Tess' quest would be to someone who didn't know she was in a movie ... Her radiant performance is the heart of the film, but she is well-supported by Harrison Ford (as the not-as-cocky-as-he-seems love interest) and Sigourney Weaver (as the boss from hell). Along the way we catch a lot of famous actors before they hit it big: Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Alex Baldwin, and David Duchovny. Especially memorable is Joan Cusack, who plays Tess' friend, and who manages to steal every scene in which she appears. All of the actors look like they had a blast working on this project.

It's impossible not to like WORKING GIRL, but I do have to pause at the underlying values celebrated in the film. First, even as the film sympathetically documents the obstacles that can impede the ambition of talented people born in the working class, it still assumes that being in the working class is somehow a "failure." The film never questions Griffith's desire to become a member of the executive class, even as she realizes the levels of deceit and treachery that often exist there. We get no sense that one might find a rich and satisfying life as a secretary, and by making that assumption we are forced to buy into the very class differences the film seems to be critiquing.

The film is a celebration of success American-style, which is particularly ironic coming from Mike Nichols, who first made his mark as the director of THE GRADUATE, which indicted the American notion of "success" as being ultimately empty and soul-stealing... Where did all that idealism go? I think Carly Simon's Oscar-winning song gives us one clue - it is a hymn to the New Jerusalem. Perhaps the baby boomers' youthful rejection of the "system" could not be sustained as long as they had no real idea of what else might be worth pursuing in life.

Tess' tenacity and spunk in pursuit of her dreams draw our enthusiastic applause. We are happy ... when we see any human overcome daunting odds. But surely there are better things to aspire to than getting the corner office.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Movie
Review: I love this movie. This movie stars Melanie Griffith who is having a hard time finding a job. Then she lands a job where Katherine is her boss. She gives her an idea and Katherine staels the idea for Trask Industries. Katherine then goes on a skiing trip and Tess finds out that she stole the idea. then she pretends to be in charge. In the end Katherine finds out and Tess is fired but Tess tells Trask that she had the idea and trask fires Katherine. Tess gets the job at Trask industries. This deserved the nominations at the oscars. The title song deserved the oscar because it was a great song.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good View Of Florescent Hell
Review: There are a lot of scenes in this movie which really tell the truth about how secretaries are treated in the American workplace. One scene that sticks in my mind is when Griffith's character tracks down an executive who has received an important call. The executive gets mad with her for disturbing him and asks why didn't she give the customer the information. "He don't want to hear it from a secretary," she says. Anybody who's ever wanted to get ahead but have been victims of class snobbery and arrogance in the workplace will relate to this movie. Weaver is perfect as the ice queen executive who makes things hard for Griffith. Ford is amicable in his role. Watch for Kevin Spacey in a small role.


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