Once upon a time in LA a wealthy businessman asked a prostitute for directions

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2016)

For Edward Lewis business is everything; he makes a fortune buying struggling businesses and then selling their component parts for far more than he paid, Vivian Ward is a prostitute who plies her trade on Hollywood Boulevard neither of them expected their lives to change when he stopped to ask the way to his hotel in Beverly Hills. He isn't looking for company but she offers to show him the way there for $20; they get chatting and he asks her to spend the night. That would have been the end of their relationship but Edward's lawyer tells him he should bring a date to a dinner meeting with a businessman whose company Edward is trying to buy. He hires Vivian for the week; to make her look the part he tells her to get the right clothes and after some problems with snobbish sales assistants the two of them spend some serious money at another store. Over the course of the week they inevitably grow feelings for each other but that isn't all; Vivian seems to be softening Edward's business attitudes too.
This is very much a wish fulfilment story; Vivian is a latter day Cinderella and Edward is her Prince Charming the story isn't never likely but that doesn't stop it being a lot of fun. Early on it looks as if the story might be dark as Vivian walks past a location where the police are dealing with a dead prostitute but after that things are much lighter; even characters who try to be threatening aren't that menacing; the only real exception to that is Edward's lawyer who, upon learning of Vivian's profession, thinks he can have her too. Richard Gere does an impressive job as Edward and Julia Roberts is delightful as Vivian even if she is far more believable in the fine attire Edward bought her than the street clothes she is wearing when they meet. The rest of the cast are pretty good too. Most of the characters are likable and those that aren't get what is coming to them and the ending is pretty much what most viewers would expect cliché perhaps but still enjoyable. Overall I'd recommend this if you want some light-hearted if unlikely romance.