Cute Movie

Rating: 7/10 (6 November 2005)

I remember when PRETTY WOMAN first came out in the summer of 1990. I did not go see it then but remember how people made a big fuss about the movie. All these years, I had not watched the movie except for bits and pieces of it. At any rate, I took the time to rent it and actually found it to be a cute movie. In fact, it was better than I expected. Did I find the movie to be realistic at all? Absolutely not. However, it IS a fairytale and by viewing it from that perspective, I enjoyed it. The basic premise is that Julia Roberts plays a prostitute named Vivian who, despite her profession, is basically a good person. One night, Richard Gere (Edward) picks her up and decides he wants to use her for a night. He ends up using her for the week. During that time, he shows her a side to life that she has never been exposed to before such as attending the opera. The week goes by and they both find that they really like each other but they realize they need to part ways. Of course, this being a fairytale, he finds her and they go off to live happily ever after.
Again, if I were to judge the movie on how realistic I felt it was, I would say completely unrealistic. However, judging the movie for what it is, it showed that here were two people who, despite their both being totally different on the surface were actually quite similar. I.E. Julia Roberts's character Vivian is a hooker and Richard Gere's character Edward is a businessman who makes a living through mergers and acquisitions. My point is that that both characters basically use people to make money. Also, it showed how Vivian who was street-smart kind of softened Edward up a little and at the same time, Edward showed Vivian a life outside of prostitution. If there is one thing I want to say about PRETTY WOMAN, I want to say that I found the message to be that it is never to late to follow one's dreams.
As for this movie, I understand there were several script versions for it. At one point, Al Pacino was considered for the Richard Gere role. Personally, I imagine this would have been a darker movie had Al Pacino starred in it. Also, I understand there was a version where Vivian was on cocaine and her roommate Kit died of a drug over-dose. Had that version been made, the film would have been more realistic. However, as I stated above, this is basically a Cinderella story.
I want to mention a few things about PRETTY WOMAN. Probably one of my favorite scenes in the movie is where Vivian (Julia Roberts) walks along Rodeo Drive wearing her tall black hooker boots and her mini-skirt. Here she is completely out of place and when she goes into the fancy shops in an attempt to buy "more appropriate" clothing, the merchants refuse to help her. Then the next day, after a nice lady helped her, she goes to the merchants who would not help her and said "Do you remember me? You wouldn't help me. Do you work on commission? Big Mistake!" I liked that scene because as is so often the case, people tend to judge others only on the surface or think "this person has no money. He's not well dressed." When watching the DVD of PRETTY WOMAN, I also took the time to watch the movie with the narration by Garry Marshall, the director. That is very interesting as he explains how the different scenes were shot and why they turned out the way they did. It is also worth mentioning that this is the very last movie that Ralph Bellamy made as he passed away a year or so after the film was released. In conclusion, I want to say PRETTY WOMAN is worth watching some time when you just want to relax and not deal with reality.