An entertaining motion picture that had women calling out the delights of true love...

Rating: 9/10 (1 April 2000)

"This is Hollywood where people come to fulfill their dreams! Some dreams come true and some don't! Believe in your dreams!"
While visiting Los Angeles for a week, Edward Lewis borrows his friend's car and gets lost on Hollywood Boulevard... He asks a hooker for directions... She proposes to help him for 5 dollars... For $20, she accepted to show him where the stars live...
Edward invites her to join him in his hotel suite, but not for sex...
Enjoying her company, he offers her to be his 'date' for a series of business activities including a strategic dinner and a pool match... Out of the 'bargain,' she gets $3,000 cash, a classier wardrobe and a visit to the opera...
All the characters of the film are convincing, original and sympathetic, feeling comfortable with each other... Director Gary Marshall did a great job...
Ideal for the role is Richard Gere... He plays the terrific rescuer who 'free' Vivian from the streets conducting her to his penthouse suite... He is handsome, charming and shy... 'Henry Higgins' at his best... But Edward Lewis is a millionaire... He buys companies that are in financial difficulty... He takes them apart and sells the pieces for more than he paid for the whole... "It's strictly business", he tells Vivian... "You and I are both such similar people. We both screw people for money." Edward's only defect is that he hurts what he loves... He wins a certain imaginative power by how painful that treason is...
Julia Roberts plays Vivian Ward, an attractive and smart hooker with a heart of gold... She gives her character a great sense of humor, charming Edward with her honesty... She is intensely appealing and amusing, making any man feel comfortable...
Into the snobbish clothing store, she delivers a great exit line, just devastating the saleswomen... The song is terrific as the scene... In the hotel lobby, she walks in a 'killer' red dress... She learns which fork to use in the formal dinner meeting, projecting an escargot through the air... At the opera she innocently asks: "Where's the band?"
There's more than a touch of Eliza Dolittle in her role, specially when she decides she wants more from Edward than money... She gets the perfect rescue scene with a limousine, a fire escape, a balcony, birds, music and red flowers...
Hector Elizondo turns a supporting role into more than that... He plays the formal, intolerant hotel manager... He takes an affection to his best customer's "niece" and trains her on which fork to use at a fancy dinner... His amusing performance as Edward's smooth competent hotel manager nearly shapes Roberts and Gere...
Ralph Bellamy is incredibly good as the aging millionaire, creator of a small company Edward is trying to take to pieces...
Laura San Giacomo plays Vivian's pal roommate, her first role since she played the amorous sister in "sex, lies & videotape."
"Pretty Woman" is a contemporary Hollywood fairy tale, a sweet romantic comedy, an innocent love story in the middle of self-interest and agreement... It remains as an entertaining motion picture that had women calling out the delights of true love...
Keep on dreaming!