Rating: 3.5/5
When Bob’s Burgers merged Die Hard and Working Girl, I knew I would have to watch Working Girl sooner or later
Tess (Melanie Griffith) is a secretary with higher ambitions, so when she suspects her boss Katherine (Sigourney Weaver) of stealing one of her ideas, she decides to play the same cutthroat game and take what she wants by pretending to be her boss and making a deal with investment banker Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford)
It’s fun to see older movies where everyone is sleazy — it’s still a style of storytelling that polarizes audiences — they feel like they’re supposed to cheer for someone, but everyone sucks. This movie, whether intentional or not, is a critique of business and how it sews deception into people’s being — you fucked me over and were rewarded for it? Well, now it’s my turn
And what makes it work is that you get caught up in the grift, and the ending feels like a victory until the credits roll, and she becomes just another window in just another skyscraper
So many great little choices — cinematography touches, hair and makeup, costume, the theme, and variation on Let the River Run throughout
Of course, it has to do the third act romcom misunderstanding and redemption, but it hits the notes it needs to and still manages to maintain the fabric of the reality it has established
stray thoughts
- Great big hair on Melanie Griffith and Joan Cusack and all the other Jersey Queens
- “$6000!? It’s not even leather!”
- Oren Trask is Jack Donaghey — saw the future in microwave technology?
- Harrison Ford whistled, “If I only had a brain.”