Thoughts on Working Girl

 

via Gfycat

"Why didn't you tell us all this in the boardroom that day?"
"Well, no one was gonna listen, sir, not to me. I mean, you can bend the rules plenty once you get upstairs 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."

For the third consecutive day, we have a movie that's both distinctly of its era and featuring timeless insight. A freshman-level course on workplace behavior is taught by director Mike Nichols and writer Kevin Wade.

Use every opportunity to better yourself, like Tess (Melanie Griffith). Think outside the box; inspiration can come from even a gossip column ("You read W?" "I read a lot of things."). Network, network, network! Katherine (Sigourney Weaver) is a master of this and Tess becomes one. Know your worth. Katherine is also a master at this. "I'd love to help you, but we can't busy the quarterback with passing out the Gatorade." Also, of course, be able to give a (literal) elevator pitch and/or show the receipts. That said, Tess was lucky that Trask (Philip Bosco) cared first about exactly whose deal it was rather than how it'd benefit himself.

Then again, Tess also was lucky enough to get to Trask first, succeed at stroking his ego and receive any credibility or knowledge gained from working with Jack (Harrison Ford). And as Jack himself said, "The players may have changed, but the game remains the same, and the name of the game is 'Let's Make a Deal.'" Weaver has her best moment before that line, as Katherine registers that she, Jack and Tess have all lost who (as well as what, in Tess' case) they love. Which leads to my little lecture's last point: have partners, not people who will hold you back, like Katherine, Mick (Alec Baldwin) and alas, Cyn (Joan Cusack). I want so badly to believe Cyn and Tess stayed friends. The ending suggests it, but ...

"... Look, all I'm sayin' is, if you're so smart, why don't you act smart and save your ass while you still can. Else they're gonna find out, you're not gonna have your job or any job. You're out of your man and your home already."

"I'm gonna come clean as soon as I get my end set up. I swear. I know what I'm doing."

"Yeah, so do I, screwin' up your life."

"No, I'm trying to make it better. I'm not gonna spend the rest of my life working my ass off and getting nowhere just because I followed rules that I had nothing to do with setting up, okay?"

Working Girl gets a lot right, but there are elements I don't especially like. It's way too convenient for Jack to be both the man Katherine wants and Tess gets. If I was Katherine, I'd be racking my brain trying to think if I ever somehow let Tess see a photo of Jack and if she's actually pulling off a Single White Female situation. For that matter, Mick isn't a character, he's a joke, "the kind of guy who gifts women lingerie." Jack feeling the pressure of staying afloat in business seems like it wandered in from a more serious movie. At the same time, I didn't expect to be as charmed as I was by Jack. Having him pack a lunch for Tess sealed the deal.

I came around much earlier on Griffith and Weaver. Both are perfectly cast. Weaver has the advantage of a role with range, letting her be the social butterfly, fleetingly vulnerable and an ace manipulator. I thought it was brilliant, Katherine's last moment of presenting herself as Tess' friend and mentor. Katherine stole Tess' idea. We all know this. "It just occurs to me, looking at it, is that it reads as though it were my idea." For her chutzpah alone -- like sprechen sie Deutsch to get the room room with the fireplace big enough to stand in -- Katherine/Weaver is almost worthy of winning Working Girl.

But then there's Tess/Griffith. Neither was the freshest face on the block. Tess is newly 30, an apparently self-motivated honor student and on her fourth chance in the workforce. (She also, to use a line I deliberately avoided until now, has "a head for business and a bod for sin.") Griffith was 30 during shooting, about to enter rehab and amid her second chance in show business. (I'm guilty of having made fun of Griffith's plastic surgeries in the past. AlienJesus rightfully chastised me, which among other things, led to my researching Roar.) I don't care that audiences have apparently been misunderstanding Working Girl's ending for nearly 33 years. You can't tell us we don't know a victory when we see one.

"Maybe now would be a good time to go over what you expect of me."

"*considers this* ... I, uh, I expect you to call me Tess. I don't expect you to fetch me coffee unless you're getting some for yourself. And, um, the rest we'll just make up as we go along. Okay?"

*Amy Aquino's smile sells the moment*

Recommended.

Thoughts:
-- "... No, no, you look good. Classy. What'd, you have to go to traffic court or somethin'?"
-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $63.8 million on a $28 million budget, this opened at No. 4
-- Awards Watch: This went one for six at the Oscars, with losses for Best Picture, Director, Actress and Supporting Actress (twice, Weaver and Cusack) and a win for Best Song. It did considerably better at the Golden Globes, with wins for Best Comedy or Musical, Actress in a Comedy or Musical, Supporting Actress (Weaver; Cusack wasn't nominated) and Song, while Nichols and Wade both lost. "Let the River Run" was also a Grammy winner, but it, plus Griffith and Weaver, lost at the BAFTAs.
-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Like its heroine, (it) has a genius for getting by on pure charm," Janet Maslin wrote. "Comic scenes sometimes go bankrupt because they just hold their stock too long," wrote Desson Howe, The Washington Post. "Light entertainment like this should zip along like those financial quote boards." "This is not a laugh-out-loud film, though there is a lighthearted tone that runs consistently throughout," according to Variety. "Shallow as it is ... it is the most entertaining American comedy of 1988," David Denby wrote.
-- Critic's Corner, Griffith and Weaver: Denby also liked Melanie. "(Her casting) was a brilliant coup -- her sweetness .. gets us on her side from the beginning." "Griffith gives the fullest performance of her career; Weaver, the most likable, even though she's the villain of the piece," Gene Siskel wrote. Denby: "Weaver (is) parodying herself bravely and broadly." 

-- Ah, hell ... Critic's Corner, Ford: "Wonderfully deadpan," Howe wrote. "He will never be Cary Grant, but this time, I enjoyed his peculiarly morose manner," Denby wrote.

-- Critic's Corner, Nichols: "(It's) Nichols returning to the top of his form, and Griffith finding hers," Roger Ebert raved. Siskel: "His best film in years." Nichols was uncharacteristically blunt according to Maslin. "The story remains lively but seldom has the perceptiveness or acuity of (his) best work."

-- "You're like one of those crazed cops, aren't 'cha, the kind nobody wants to ride with, whose partners all end up dead or crazy."

-- Different Times: Jack and Tess sharing his bed while she's knocked out, even if he didn't take advantage of her. You could keep Tess misunderstanding the situation and still appeal to 2021 sensibilities. Here's how: Jack actually slept on the couch. He comes into the bedroom to prepare the day's clothes as Tess is stirring. Jack goes to take a shower and Tess leaves. Simple as that.
-- Fanservice Junction: Cusack and Bosco are the only major cast members without a lingerie, shirtless or partially nude scene. And even Cyn has the line about how dancing in her underwear doesn't make her Madonna. Bonus points for Doreen (Elizabeth Whitcraft) and the tacky porn Tess is briefly shown. I wonder if that was an actual movie or if Nichols directed it. "Okay ... cunnilingus while floating in a pool ... go!"
-- Hey, It's ...!: Oliver Platt, David Duchovny, Kevin Spacey, Olympia Dukakis, Nora Dunn and Ricki Lake.
-- Didja Notice? Tess mentions Bobby Stein, a radio talk show guy "who does all those gross jokes about Ethiopia and The Betty Ford Center." Sounds like a suspiciously specific substitute for Howard Stern.

-- Musical Moments: Besides "Let the River Run," a personal favorite, we have "I'm So Excited" and "The Lady in Red" playing at Cyn's engagement party. Interesting instrumental as Tess enters the party where she meets Jack, "The Man That Got Away."
-- Finally, let's give a shout to the movie's unsung hero, helicopter pilot Al Cerullo.
-- "Cyn ... guess where I am." Is there nothing better than having a "Hey, (s)he did it!" moment like Cyn's?
-- Next: Gorillas in the Mist. On deck: A Cry in the Dark.