Working Girl (1988)
Working Girl (1988), directed by Mike Nichols.
The outline is a classic comedy setup from earlier decades: a secretary takes advantage of her boss's extended absence to impersonate an executive and claw her way into high finance, finding time for new love along the way.
It's not a full-out romantic comedy because her life has considerable stress and sorrow: her no-good cheating boyfriend, being stuck among the secretaries no matter how hard she works, and possessing considerable passion but unwilling to sleep her way up.
It's something of a class warfare comedy: blue collar New Jersey vs rich Manhattan, big-hair office workers vs the sleek and predatory execs.
Well structured and expertly edited. The casting is good:
Melanie Griffith's speaking voice has always been a bit irritating to me, but she uses it for pathos here, and shows she can do other voices when climbing the ladder. Brief nudity, including a funny long-distance bit of vacuuming in high heels.
Harrison Ford gets top billing even though he doesn't show up until well into the picture. Time off from action roles.
Sigourney Weaver is deliciously wicked as the patronizing and exploiting boss. Bad as she is, for some reason we can't hate her. We don't want her to triumph, but still share her humiliation when her villainy is exposed.
Same for Alec Baldwin as the cheating boyfriend. We think she can do batter, but can't ignore his pain and anger.
Joan Cusack fan club!
Early glimpses of Oliver Platt and Kevin Spacey.
When Griffith first has her hair up and puts on a suit -- and I'm sure this is intentional -- she looks much like her mother:
Available on Blu-ray.
