The Best Films Of The 90's: Pretty Woman

Rating: 10/10 (24 August 2006)

Pretty Woman (1990): Starring Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Laura San Giacomo, Jason Alexander, Ralph Bellamy, Hector Elizondo, Alex Hyde-White, Amy Yasbeck, Judith Baldwin, Jason Randal, Tracy Bjork, Gary Greene, Billy Gallo, Hank Azaria, Larry Hankin, Julie Paris, Marty Nadler, Rhonda Hansome, Harvey Keenan, Jacqueline Woolsey, Lynda Goodfried, Frank Campanella, Jackie O'Brien, Reed Anthony, Patrick Richwood, Kathleen Marshall, Laurelle Brooks, James Patrick Stuart, Don Feldstein, Marvin Braverman, Jeff Michalski, James Patrick Dunne, Steve Restivo, R. Darrell Hunter, Larry Miller, Dey Young, Minda Burr, Carol Williard, Shane Ross, Michael French, R.C. Everbeck, Tom Nolan, John David Carson, Director Gary Marshall, Screenplay J.F. Lawton.
With Director Gary Marshall's "Pretty Woman", movies of the 1990's were off to a good start. This film was not a box-office smash, but when it was released on video and was subsequently shown on Cable TV, it gradually became a beloved romantic classic. Despite what anyone may think, "Pretty Woman" launched the careers of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, whose chemistry in this film is the stuff you'd be hard-pressed to find in today's Hollywood film pairings. With cinematography by Charles Minsky, which looks at Hollywood and Beverly Hills with a degree of authenticity, especially in the night scenes, and with pop hits on the soundtrack like the titular "Pretty Woman", "Real Wild Child", "It Must Have Been Love" and "Show Me Your Soul", this film is possibly the definition of a modern Hollywood love story, a kind of 1990's Cinderella. There's much to admire about this film. First the performances by the lead actors. Richard Gere portrays independently wealthy divorcée Edward Lewis who flies to Hollywood/LA/Beverly Hills on a business week where he is to buy a company. He meets Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) a street-walking prostitute who spends the week with him in a pent house suite in a luxurious hotel. She is to pose as a date and accompany him as he meets with the company guys. Vivian, who can barely afford to pay the rent, learns "how the other half lives" and through Richard discovers a world of ruthless business deals, hypocritical, class-conscious people and discrimination. Edward sheds his pride and learns how to really love another human being. The "fairy tale" aspect which is at the heart of "Pretty Woman" is a nice touch, but it's also responsible for its lack of credibility. In order to appreciate the film, you have to suspend disbelief. Vivian and Richard could not possibly fall in love in real life, and certainly not in the course of a single week. Even with this flaw, it's lovely to see them fall for each other (she did something she thought she'd never do to a client, kissed him on the mouth!!). I love it when Edward and Viv fly to San Francisco on his private plane where they see the opera "La Traviata", whose plot about a courtesan and a wealthy man in Paris mirrors Viv and Edward's own love story. Jason Alexander (better known as George Costanza from Seinfeld) portrays Phillip Stuckey, Edward's nasty lawyer. This was before Jason Alexander appeared on "Seinfeld" and his performance is something else. Obnoxious, mean-spirited, he even attempts to rape Vivian in a latter scene. Laura San Giacomo ("Maya" on "Just Shoot Me") portrays the sassy Kit De Luca, Viv's prostitute girlfriend who is a real throwback to the personality of the 80's, which makes sense considering the film was being made in the late 80's and released in 1990. While some scenes are downright unrealistic, such as Vivian's following comment: "When I was a girl, and when I misbehaved, and that was often, my mother would lock me up in the attic. I would pretend that I was a princess locked up in a tower by the evil queen. A knight in shining armor would come riding on a great horse, draw his sword and rescue me,"; some scenes contain slices of crude real life, especially among the rich, as the scene in which Vivian tries to purchase a gown at a store in the trendy Rodeo Drive. The sales ladies don't want her in the store on account of her being a hooker. This is exactly why we applaud not only when Vivian returns to the same store dressed in a sophisticated "Sabrina" type gown and this time humiliates the sales lady, but the ending in which she and Edward run off to live happily ever after. This is a wonderful film and a romantic classic that could have only come from the early 90's, which would see such other romantic films as "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). This is Gary Marshall's best cinematic work and a sample of good 90's cinema.