Dir. Garry Marshall, US, 1990, 119 mins
Cast: Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Hector Elizondo, Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo
Review by Jean Lynch
A modern-day retelling of the Cinderella story, PRETTY WOMAN catapulted its star, the then 23-year-old Julia Roberts, into the film stratosphere. Her portrayal of Vivian, the call girl whose low self-esteem disallows her from thinking she can live any other way, was popular not only with men but also women, seeing in her their own insecurities and vulnerabilities. The fact that she ultimately triumphs over these and secures a rich, handsome, successful businessman along the way was proof that it was possible to transform their humdrum lives.
Vivian is a prostitute, a fact we’re constantly reminded of by different people throughout the course of the film. Wearing thigh length boots, crop top and black mini-skirt, and a cutesy sixties blonde bob, she inhabits the street corners of Hollywood, looking for passing trade. She finds it in the shape of Edward, a notoriously commitment-shy businessman who is lost – not looking for sex - and, what’s more, can’t really drive the car he’s borrowed from a friend. Sassy Vivian, displaying to the audience that there’s more to this hooker than meets the eye, deftly takes control of the situation and, it seems, Richard, who takes her back to his penthouse suite. There’s a few raised eyebrows from the hotel manager (Elizondo), and the wife who tells her husband to ‘close your mouth, dear’, but flashy Richard, with his zen-like calm, soon assuages any concerns: ‘She’s my niece’.
In the luxury apartment, we’re shown that the hooker and her client are actually decent people when, through a misunderstanding over dental floss, he wants to throw her out because he thinks she’s taking drugs, and she takes huge exception to him thinking that she does. We also discover that they’re not all that different. He takes over companies for a living. “People don’t come into it, it’s strictly business” he says. “oh” she says “you do the same thing I do.
After a night of paid passion, Vivian emerges from the bathroom the following morning in a demure white bathrobe, replete with a tumbling mass of long red locks. So the transformation begins – the real Vivian, a funny, sharp but otherwise quite gauche young woman, emerges, the white symbolising her inner purity. Richard, clearly bemused but enchanted by her ways, is in town for a week and wants company. He asks her to stay with him during the visit, to be his escort, for which he will pay her handsomely. Her childlike whoops of delight and cry of ‘I’ll treat you so good you won’t want to let me go!” is met with a ‘Vivian I WILL let you go” but we, the audience, know better. And, as Vivian says contentedly to herself, living the dream: “But I’m here now”.
Whilst undoubtedly a Cinderella story, Pretty Woman is also akin to Pygmalion/My Fair Lady with Richard Gere serving as Professor Higgins to Roberts Eliza Dolittle. He recognises and encourages the latent lady within her, grooms her, but it is for his own needs and has little to do with what’s good for his protégé. After all, having been clad in designer gowns, dripping with diamonds and being helicoptered to exotic locations, how will she handle the inevitable and beckoning return to the streets?
Fortunately, it’s the sentimental hotel manager who takes pity on Vivian who, after he not unkindly berates her appearance, breaks down and tells him how badly she’s been treated in the designer shops on Rodeo Drive. The fatherly man invites the designers to show her some clothes and we all cheer as, now dressed in a classically tailored beige outfit, Vivian returns to the scene of the crime, a host of designer shopping bags in hand and, despite now being welcomed, points out to the haughty assistants how their treatment of her was a ‘big mistake – huge!’ Oh, Julia, you are the heroine of our lives.
The audience follows the film from Vivian’s viewpoint, and her attempts at eating shellfish in a fancy restaurant, her graphic reaction to a night at the opera, plus her kindness to her street friends, only enlist our sympathies more. Her final transformation, which brings tears to everyone’s eyes including the hotel manager’s, is her appearance in the long red satin evening gown, a true princess of her fairytale. As Edward presents her with a diamond necklace and playfully snaps the box shut as she reaches for it, her loud guffaws are possibly what has cemented her in the hearts of the viewing public for evermore, proving her to be very real and most human, no ivory towers for her.
As the week draws to a close, however, Vivian receives a rude awakening from the dream she’s living, in the shape of a horrible little man at a polo match, leaving her in no doubt that she is, in fact, a hooker. Despite Edward’s valiant attempts to protect her, her inner feelings have been hurt and he winds up unwittingly insulting her more.
The question is – will this be a true fairytale and end happily ever after? In order to do so, Edward must undergo some soul-searching transformations of his own. Fortunately, our kindly fairy godfather concierge is on hand to help out…
Pretty Woman is a beautiful and most modern telling of a timeless story. Roberts and Gere, who were rumoured to be romantically involved during the filming, display an intuitive performance each with the other, and make us truly feel for the couple, however mismatched they may be. With its realist setting and a couple who have, through previous experience, learned to be cyncial about love and not trust, the films stands testimony to the transformative power of love, and allows us to think that such stores really can, and do, happen.
As the street performer says as the credits roll: “this is Hollywood – everybody has a dream. What’s your dream?” Forget it’s a product of la la land and concentrate on the dream…
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