Pretty Woman

Plot synopsis:
A very successful, wealthy lawyer, Edward Lewis, hires a beautiful and unlikely prostitute, Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts), from Sunset Blvd to bring along to various business events. An attraction developes between the two, and Edward finds it harder and harder to let the infectious, kind-hearted Vivian go.Businessman Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) breaks up with his girlfriend, who doesn't want to be at his "beck and call" at a swanky party held by his partner Philip Stuckey, and cuts loose in Stuckey's Lotus. He gets lost and stops along Hollywood Boulevard for directions from hooker Vivenne Ward (Julia Roberts). She charges, gets in and ends up driving him to his hotel in Beverley Hills. He asks her up to his penthouse suite on a whim and pays her to stay all night, although seems uncomfortable at first.The following morning he asks her to stay all week for $3000. He also gives her money for clothes and says she needs to be at his "beck and call" with no strings attached. She calls her room-mate Kit (Laura San Giacomo) to leave her money for the rent, and goes shopping on Rodeo Drive for more appropriate clothes. However, snooty saleswomen won't serve her as she is still dressed like a hooker, and she returns to the hotel, where she gets stopped by the hotel manager, Barney (Hector Elizondo). He wants to make it clear that they are making an exception having her at the hotel as Edward is such a special guest. Vivienne gets upset as she still has no outfit for dinner, and Barney helps her, along with coaching her on dinner etiquette. When Edwards returns, he is amazed by Vivienne's new look. The business dinner goes well, but Edward is preoccupied with the deal afterwards.The next day, Vivienne tells him about the experience shoppingt the previous day, and Edward takes her back to spend an obscene amount of money on clothes, leaving her to go back to his work as she is transformed from hooker to lady. She goes back to the shop from the previous day to show them the big mistake they made! Back at hotel, she looks like a genuine guest, but when Edward gets home he is still busy with work, and they take a bath together and talk into the night about their pasts and how they ended up where they are today.The following day, Edward takes Vivienne to the polo. While Vivienne chats to David Morse, the grandson of the man involved in Edward's latest deal, Philip is worried she is a spy. Edward reassures him by telling him how they met, and Philip then comes on to Vivienne. When they return to the hotel, she is furious with Edward for telling him, and plans to leave, but he persuades her to see out the week. Edward leaves work early the next day and takes Vivienne on a date to the Opera in his private jet. She clearly is moved by the music, and says "If I forget to tell you later, I had a wonderful time tonight". On returning to the hotel, he falls asleep (the first time we have seen this) while she is getting ready for bed, and she kisses him on the lips - she doesn't do this with clients - and they make love as partners, rather than client and hooker. Over breakfast, Edward offers to put her up in an apartment so he can continue seeing her, but she feels insulted and says this is not the fairytale she wants. He then goes off to work without resolving the situation. Kit comes to the hotel and sees that she has fallen for him, but she denies it.Edward meets Morse, about to close the deal, and changes his mind at the last minute. His time with Vivienne has shown him another way of being - taking time off and enjoying life - and working. He wants to create things rather than just making money. Philip is livid, and goes to the hotel. Vivienne is there and he blames her for changing Edward - he comes onto her again, and then hits her before Edward returns and pulls him off and chucks him out.Vivienne leaves, and is seen back at home with Kit, packing up to leave for San Franscisco. Edward gets into the car with the chauffeur that took her home, and rather than going to the airport, he goes to her apartment and climbs up the fire escpae (despite being afraid of heights) with a rose in his mouth, to woo her like in a fairy-story.

Tags: comedy, romantic, fantasy, entertaining

Review:
an absolute must for fans of romance, comedy, any kind of light hearted movies or for those who are big fans of julia or richard.
"Pretty Woman" is pop culture at its finest as Julia Roberts (in an Oscar-nominated, icon-making role) is a prostitute on the mean streets of Los Angeles who gets a big financial break one night when she meets up with cold, but lonely business guru Richard Gere.
Richard Gere and Julia Roberts give magical performances as a shrewd businessman and a lovely prostitute.
I thought that Edward (Richard Gere) and Vivian (Julia Roberts) looked good in the attire they wore to the opera in San Francisco.
Oh, boy, if you ask me, Julia Roberts did, indeed, look like a pretty woman in this movie.
Before I wrap this up, I'd like to say that I think Richard Gere and Julia Roberts each deserved an Academy Award for their performances.
And, it's another shining film illustration of that pearl of wisdom from Eliza Doolittle (of My Fair Lady) who enlightened us, 'The difference between a flower girl and a lady is not how she behaves, but how she is treated.' Or, in Vivian's own words, 'People put you down enough, you start to believe it'.Great Cinderella movie...don't miss it..
The powerful, intellectual, and educated man's (Richard Gere's character) choice for this woman (Julia Robert's character) primarily on beauty alone, tends to denigrate all of the human effort to rise above our baseline naivete and ignorance.
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...
I love this movie...like a Cinderella story for adults, with facts of the real world: a human (and man) fairy godmother for example, a prince, everything!!!
While I'm not particularly a big fan of Richard Gere or [the very overrated] Julia Roberts, their chemistry in the film is great, and the film works as a decent romantic comedy on a superficial level.
While I personally think this film deserves a 1, I'll give it a 5 in a nod to all you people out there who care only about how "cute" Richard and Julia look together in this movie.For a real romantic comedy from this period, see "Sleepless in Seattle" instead..
Either everybody was an ass-kisser or had absolutely no reason to fill any dialog in the movie aside from just complimenting Julia Roberts or kissing ass to Richard Gere.This was a movie about how when you walk around in high-heels and a tight skirt in Beverly Hills, people leer at you and guys who work in hotels gawk as if they just had a baseball bat struck to their face.While in reality, the women who are dressed to the nines in Beverly Hills are hookers and prostitutes to a higher degree, but since they aren't wearing the gaudy Madonna looking jewelry or the patent boots, they can look down on the others who do.The hotel cast was sickeningly sad to watch, and anybody who had any real character had less than a minute of screen time.This is an insult to romantic movies, comedies, dramas and even to prostitutes who face wealthy customers on a daily basis with hopes of having their lives work out perfect.The story is about Julia Roberts being PIMPED (yes PIMPED) by a multimillionaire in a business suit and limousine.She is still owned, still told how to act, how to move, what to wear, what to say, where to go and what to do.
He is more controlling than a street pimp, but the folks at Disney/buena vista butter it up to make it easier to swallow.Had Richard Gere been a black man with a gold tooth and an AK-47 at his side instead of an attaché case, this movie would be about how a woman has to struggle to get away from the harshness of prostitution.
Same story, different characters will make a very different outlook.Oh yeah, change the white man for a black man or Asian or Spanish, have the land business deal be changed to a deal of weapons or narcotics and the entire concept of romantic comedy is thrown away.As far as I'm concerned, Pretty Woman is still trash, dressed with ribbons and bows.I didn't like it 15 years ago, when I didn't understand it and was led by the Hollywood hype.
If it weren't for one scene where Julia Roberts laughs, and looks like she means it - that's called acting - I'd call this the worst movie of all time.
The makers of this film would like us to forget everything we have ever learned about prostitution  that it takes place in an environment of corruption and is itself a cause of corruption, misery and disease  in favor of the absurd notion that sex for hire is a convenient, appealing and pleasurable way for couples to meet and establish a love relationship.The producers were very clever in hiring deadpan actor Richard Gere to present their false point of view to innocent viewers, because everything else about the movie smirks at the jades in the audience, not too subtly concealing its lewd in-jokes and boorish innuendo beneath a paper thin veneer of polish and elegance.
Worst of all, it openly and chivalrously takes the part of prostitutes against those who may disapprove of them."Pretty Woman" is the type of manipulative movie that does everything it can to sell the audience on its values, without making an effort to distinguish between itself and real life.
If it weren't for Julia Roberts' lead role in this film, I would have been SURE I was watching some awful spoof of the *classic* romantic comedy "Pretty Woman."  Now, I consider myself a very open-minded fella, I try not to prejudice myself against chick-flicks and I'm one guy that actually likes a true romantic film.
The truth is, there's no such thing as the perfect man, or "Mr. Right" just like there's no perfect woman, so please stop creating this standard for perfection that doesn't exist, and stop trying to brainwash movie audiences into thinking that wealth and beauty makes a good human being.
If you'd like to see a really BEAUTIFUL romance on film, check out "Picnic", "Casablanca", or "Now, Voyager!"  They're OLD movies, but they were made at a time when Hollywood wasn't cranking out love stories in a tired old formula.
I have just given a 10 for Thieves Highway, I mention this for two reasons one to prove I'm not a git who only gives bad reviews but 2 because the theme of the film has the same thread namely the falling in love with a woman of the night.We all know pretty Woman is a chick flick but you can't avoid them all, they'll eventually get you.
More importantly anyone who likes this film will hate 'Thieves Highway' a wonderful story of which part is based on the same subject.I'll finish on a song:Pretty woman hangin round the street Pretty woman, the kind I like to treat Pretty woman, I don't believe you You're not the truth No one could spend as much as you MercyPretty woman, wont you pardon me Pretty woman, I couldn't help but see Pretty woman, and you look lovely as can be do you lack imagination just like mePretty woman, shop a while Pretty woman, talk a while Pretty woman, sell your smile to me Pretty woman, yeah, yeah, yeah Pretty woman, look my way Pretty woman, say you'll stay with me..and I'll pay you..I'll treat you right.
Pretty Woman was a complete piece of crap movie that demeaned women and glorified prostitution for young girls and pimps.The only thing it proved is how morally bankrupt many of the Hollywood studio heads really are.Our Mothers, Sisters, Aunts, Daughters goals are not to be hookers rescued by some rich John..What a complete load of BS.Hollywood's fantasy perversion from the Studios that demand that women sleep with Studio Heads and "put out" to get ahead.I read that thousands of young, impressionable, uneducated women were conned and suckered into prostitution by Johns as a result of this complete horse's ass of a movie.Of course the movie never mentioned the harsh life of most prostitutes on the streets: slavery to their johns, beatings, drug abuse, ruined lives, early deaths etc....And, they ruined a great Roy Orbison song by associating it with this complete garbage movie.F*** Hollywood for one of the worst movies of all time....
Originally the man plans to use the woman but as the story progresses they fall in love.When the street prostitute goes into nice hotels, her clothes, her behavior, etc is out of place.
She was a rising young star at the time,effervescent and able to absolutely run with this film the way Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith(American footballers for those of you reading not from the US or don't follow the NFL or sports in general)could run with the pigskin.Also,I loved how the Cinderella story was played with not too much sentiment(up until the last fifteen minutes,of course)and a lot of humor.
Richard Gere seemed to make a good,sober counterbalance to Miss Roberts' earthy,relaxed persona,as well.Looking back on it now and having re-watched it a number of times,the film loses points with me on two levels.
Second,I think this story is SO Hollywood sanitized that what it lacks in a particularly plausible storyline in tries to make up for in attractive,glossed up casting(I betting it's pretty tough to find a hooker ANYWHERE who looks as good as a young Julia Roberts!)and a sugary sweet ending.It was good enough for me back when I was young and hadn't seen as many films,not so good now.Not to mention making a capable comic foil actor such as Jason Alexander so one-dimensional that it makes you wonder how he scored the "Seinfeld" gig!Still,I find it to be charming and reasonably(albeit shamelessly) entertaining enough to watch it again,which I have since I actually own a copy of the film.Keep in mind,that,too,was something I got as a gift,when(you guessed it)I was eighteen..
I don't buy at all that Richard Gere, as a millionaire or even a $40,000 a year salesman, would fall in love with the hooker, Julia Roberts.
Although if you're going to use hookers, why would you want the same one for more than one night?Add to that that Julia Roberts is simply devoid of acting ability, and is not exactly what the title of the movie promises, and you have a film with no heart, no soul, and no reason to exist.If you're going to adapt Pygmalion, then look to My Fair Lady or even Educating Rita for your cues on how to do it right.
But that is NOT how I look at it at all.My favorite scene in the movie is when Vivian and Edward are in bed, talking and Vivian goes on about how she ended up in Los Angeles to begin with by following a "bum" that her mother called her a "bum magnet" "If there was a bum within a fifty mile radius I was completely attracted to him." But the line that stuck with me the most was "When people put you down enough you start to believe it" and Edward replies "I think you are a very charming, very beautiful woman" Vivian's reply is full of emotion when she replies "The bad stuff is easier to believe...have you ever noticed that?" Which is true.Maybe it's just me, but I think that this movie is just a fairytale, and fairytales are there to make you believe in something that is totally unbelievable.
Julia Roberts really lights up the screen in this film' which was really her big movie break through, and what a fantastic performance to kick start her into mega stardom, you fell in love with her strait away, it was so good watching it again after ten years i feel like it was like an old classic, and thats exactly what it was, and although it was only made about 14 years ago, i don't think any other film could match up to the romance and the sentimentality of such a lovely film.
It can neither be termed as a prototype of fun cinema as it lacks credibility which is evident in Leaving Las Vegas.As Hollywood film industry has its own peculiar way of portraying hookers viewers have little or no choice of rejecting such flicks.There are plenty of gaping holes in Pretty Woman.It is being labeled as a fairy tale of a hooker with golden heart.This is absurd as viewers are not in a position to figure out whether it is due to severe distress or a young girl's desire to lead a lavish life.Pretty Woman is a dismal failure as in real life people deal harshly with hookers making their lives miserable.Pretty Woman is a historic blunder too as it degrades women..
I only watched this movie to the end because it was Richard Gere and Julia Roberts who are very watchable no matter what.
The strength of the movie is of course The Richard Gere - Julia Roberts chemistry.
Richard Gere is also very good being the handsome, extremely rich but nevertheless warmhearted men who makes Julia's dream come true...
but this film is not entirely unrealistic cause on one hand it shows Richard's perfect glimmer world on the other Julia's hard serious life as a prostitute who has to work a lot for the rent of her small scrubby flat...but then destiny makes them meet each other...best love story i've ever seen!.
One of the most commercially successful (almost $500m worldwide!!) romantic comedies of all time,"Pretty Woman" is a charming modern day fairy tale that works largely in part to the phenomenal on-screen chemistry between its two stars  Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.
I watched it quite some time ago, and still remember that it is about a lonely business man on a trip to Los Angeles, picks up a prostitute on Hollywood Boulevard, and then falls in love with her.This is a typical Cinderella story in a sense.
Pretty Woman is a testament to Julia Roberts and Richard Gere's on screen chemistry, as well as to Rodeo Drive fashion.
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.
Never got a chance to see this film from beginning to end and I must say, Julia Roberts,(Vivian Ward),"Closer",'04 played the role of a hooker and put her complete heart and soul into this role.
Romantic film, nice music, interesting plot, fine beautiful actress, (Mrs. Roberts) and handsome actor, (Mr. Gere) in prime roles, a success story from the very beginning.
This is a very well done film.The role Julia Roberts plays is beautiful, and she plays it incredibly well.Richard Gere is excellent.This film as well as "Runaway Bride" demonstrates how wonderfully they work together.Very good story.I recommend this..
Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are superb in this classic tale of love and redemption.
When I need a movie to remind me of real or fantasy romance, I turn to "Pretty women"...this movie has surprisingly touched me and others in a way I can't think of, Gere was charming and sexy while Roberts was fun, loving and really relative in some aspects...the chemistry was so clear that it exuded a sort of predictable ending which only made me cry...I've like seen this movie 10 times and watch it regularly...This is truly a first class comedy romance and was worth every critics' praise...
Without Julia Roberts and Richard Gere paired together this movie would be half as good.
Julia Roberts and Richard Gere gave a superb performance and Hector Elizondo, Laura San Giacomo, & Jason Alexander played great supporting roles.
It's the Cinderella story, and maybe, instead of young women thinking that if they become prostitutes they will be rescued by Richard Gere, they might think that "well, if she could get a man like that so can I, I'm not even a prostitute"..
I love the whole point to Julia Roberts being a hooker and Richard Gere being a high class businessman.
I love this movie so much because it has such a good message to all of us low class woman who try to live life the best they can.
I like how she makes Edward (Richard Gere) become a man who is warm, caring and considerate of others instead of the cold ruthless businessman she first meets.Hector Elzondo as Barnard Thompson ( the hotels concierge) becomes a father figure to Vivian and helps her transition from hooker to smart young woman.There is nothing about this film I would change and it is still my all time favorite movie..
Here you have a prostitute name Vivian(Julia Roberts) who walk the streets of Hollywood making her tricks until one night, she meets a businessman(Richard Gere) who makes an offer she can't refuse.
This movie is my favorite of all; I can watch it over and over again, and I never get bored of it; I think the movie was made especially for this exceptional couple; they seem to be made for each other; all the cast is excellent and make the movie an unforgettable one; I must mention that the performance of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere is magical; they look so good together, they make a great couple; this is definitely one of the best romantic comedies of all times.
PRETTY WOMAN (1990) **1/2 Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, Ralph Bellamy, Jason Alexander, Laura San Giacomo, Hector Elizondo, Larry Miller.