Cinderella Working The Streets

Rating: 8/10 (4 August 2008)

Julia Roberts got her first Best Actress nomination for Pretty Woman where she plays a working girl who has a chance meeting with an Eighties economic entrepreneur played elegantly by Richard Gere. When you think about the film, it's an absolutely unreal fantasy, but carried off brilliantly by the charm of its leads.
It's one of those chance meetings as Roberts is looking to pay her's and roommate Laura San Giacomo's rent. Gere gets himself lost in Hollywood on the way to Beverly Hills and stops and asks Roberts for directions. Those kind of instructions she doesn't normally give, but incredibly enough they hit it off and Gere brings her back to his penthouse suite at the Regent Beverly Hotel. I'm not sure there is such a place in real life.
Turns out he needs her for a business date as he's negotiating with Ralph Bellamy and Alex Hyde-White for their company. Gere essentially does what Danny DeVito does in Other People's Money, but with a little more class. But with lube or not, Bellamy and Hyde-White aren't taking this one without a fight.
Julia's character is part Pygmalion, part Cinderella and who would think she would find as a fairy godfather Hector Elizondo, manager of the Regent Beverly. Normally his job would be to throw working girls out of the place, but Elizondo is charmed by her as everyone else.
Pretty Woman marked the farewell appearance of Ralph Bellamy who made his film debut in 1931. Unlike so many of his contemporaries, Bellamy kept going right up to the end when a lot of them were forcibly retired due to the collapse of the studio system. Bellamy to his credit also never did garbage strictly for a paycheck as some others did.
One other interesting character of note is Jason Alexander known to most as George Costanza of Seinfeld. Costanza's a pretty smarmy character in his own right, but Alexander who plays Gere's lawyer makes Costanza look like an Eagle Scout.
In Pretty Woman, both Roberts and Gere learn some valuable life lessons from each other. And the audience will learn a couple also if they get to view Pretty Woman.