Working Girl (1988)

Director:

Mike Nichols

Writer (WGA):

Kevin Wade (written by)

Release Date:

21 December 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance | Drama

Tagline:

For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying.

Plot:

When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she seizes an opportunity to steal it back by pretending she has her boss's job.

Plot Keywords:

Business Deal | Boss From Hell | Accident | Leap Of Faith | Boss

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 6 wins & 13 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Fri. May 23	10:00 PM	TVLAND
Sat. May 24	6:00 PM	TVLAND

Cast

Harrison Ford	...	Jack Trainer
Sigourney Weaver	...	Katharine Parker
Melanie Griffith	...	Tess McGill
Alec Baldwin	...	Mick Dugan
Joan Cusack	...	Cyn
Philip Bosco	...	Oren Trask
Nora Dunn	...	Ginny
Oliver Platt	...	Lutz
James Lally	...	Turkel
Kevin Spacey	...	Bob Speck
Robert Easton	...	Armbrister
Olympia Dukakis	...	Personnel Director
Amy Aquino	...	Alice Baxter
Jeffrey Nordling	...	Tim Rourke
Elizabeth Whitcraft	...	Doreen DiMucci

Also Known As:

Secretaria ejecutiva (Argentina) (Peru) (Venezuela) [es]
Waffen der Frauen, Die (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Armas de mujer (Spain) [es]
Dolgozo lány (Hungary) [hu]
Donna in carriera, Una (Italy) [it]
Femeie face cariera, O (Romania) [ro]
Podnikavá dívka (Czechoslovakia) [cs]
Pracujaca dziewczyna (Poland) [pl]
Quand les femmes s'en mêlent (Canada: French title) [fr]
Uma Mulher de Sucesso (Portugal) [pt]
Uma Secretária de Futuro (Brazil) [pt]
Working girl - Quand les femmes s'en mêlent (France) [fr]
Working girl - med huvudet på skaft! (Sweden) [sv]
Working girl - tieni huipulle (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:S | France:U | Peru:14 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:Btl | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

7 World Trade Center, World Trade Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith followed several female executives and secretaries on their hectic daily schedules in New York City and sat in during meetings to get a better idea of the industry from the female perspective.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Tess first arrives at Catherine's office and unpacks her box, she takes the books out of the box and places them on the desk, but in the next shot (overhead), the books are back in the box.

Quotes:

Tess McGill: You can bend the rules plenty once you get to the top, but not while you're trying to get there. And if you're someone like me, you can't get there without bending the rules.
Oren Trask: You've got a real fire in your belly, or was this just a one-time stunt that you pulled?
Tess McGill: I'm not quite sure what you mean, sir. I've got something in my belly, but I think it's nervous knots.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Zhu ba da lian meng (2002)

Soundtrack:

THE LADY IN RED

Indiana Jones & The Raiders Of The Lost Briefcase

OK, maybe not, but it does make the mind boggle doesn't it? Serious review time.

As a decade, the 1980's had a LOT to answer for. It was a decade where, if you were a woman, you had to have more hair than an entire herd of Afghan hounds, and if people could still see your ears, then your shoulder pads were obviously not big enough. It was also a decade where we were taught that greed was good and to hell with your neighbour. In short, it was the decade of YUPPYISM.

The Hollywood of the late 1980's rightly saw yuppyism as a cash cow that was worth milking at LEAST a couple of times a year. in 1987 we had the very successful but quite boring drama 'Wall Street' and also the not so successful yet quite entertaining comedy 'The Secret Of My Success'. In 1988 we saw Bette Midler & Lily Tomlin tackle their 'Big Business' and later that year it was Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver & Melanie Griffith's turn in the wonderful corporate comedy 'Working Girl'.

Desperate for success in the world of high finance, Tess McGill (Griffith) is seen by her boss as nothing more than an assistant with a voice that could grate cheese. However, she's a girl that has her wits about her, a girl who can predict the market changes better than any of her superiors and a girl who has a unique ability to spot the next big business opportunities simply by browsing periodical magazines and newspapers. However, without contacts, social standing or proper elocution, she cannot get herself heard by the powers that be.

After an altercation with her sexist boss, (played by a young Oliver Platt), she's transferred to a the Merger's & Acquisitions department as an assistant to high flyer Katherine Parker (Weaver), Parker is egotistical, patronising, and thoroughly unpleasant, but disguises it well under a sickly sweet friendly easy going demeanour. It's a front that fools Tess straight away but it's a front the audience sees through, (or should see through), from her very first scene. Parker on the other hand, immediately notices Tess's ability to 'think outside the box'. and intends to use her ideas as a platform for her own progression rather than Tess's.

Encouraged to bring her ideas to Katherine, Tess approaches her with a suggestion that TRASK industries, a company who are looking to expand their enterprise into broadcasting , should buy a radio network instead of going straight to television as there are more for sale and they can avoid any bidding wars with other companies looking to buy TV Networks and once there, they can use the radio network as a springboard into TV. Katherine offers to see if the idea could take flight, but disappoints Tess a few days later by telling her that TRASK is only looking at television as an option.

After Katherine breaks her leg whilst away skiing in the alps, she calls Tess and instructs her to 'mind the store' in her absence. Tess is sent to Katherine's apartment to collect mail and so forth and it is while there that she finds that her TRASK idea wasn't the dead duck Katherine had informed her it was and that she had already arranged to approach business ace Jack Trainer, (Ford), to arrange the meetings with TRASK but worse still, was going to pass it off as her own brainstorm.

Betrayed and slightly deflated by the revelation, Tess decides to 'pull off the gloves' and is determined to give Katherine both barrels by having the deal done and dusted before Katherine returns from overseas. Tess & Trainer are attracted to each other straight away, and the deal starts to take shape, though it soon becomes apparent to Trainer that Tess has some very unorthodox business practices, such as gate-crashing the wedding of the daughter of Oren Trask (Philip Bosco), in order to get the man interested in the concept.

Romance starts to blossom but both are trapped in sour relationships. Tess with love rat Mick (Alec Baldwin), and Trainer with none other than Katherine Parker, setting up one of rom-com's favourite clichés, the love triangle.

On her return to New York, Katherine finds Tess's diary in her apartment and notices that the deal is to complete that day, realising that Tess has had the jump on her, immediately makes preparations to scotch the works.

Will our two heroes complete their deal and find happiness with each other?, or will the baddie win through. If you're left wondering about the answer, then you've obviously NEVER seen a Romantic Comedy before.

I can't end my review without special notice to Joan Cusack in a star making performance as Tess's friend and confidant Cyn. She steals every scene that she's in, but then again she does that in every movie doesn't she? Great film, great cast and great direction probably makes 'Working Girl' The very best of the corporate comedy Genre.

Enjoy!!!