
An Enchanting Corporate Tale
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
What I love about Mike Nichols' Working Girl, each time that I view it, is that the film reminds me of the Cinderella fairytale re-envisioned as a corporate fable. While there are no evil stepmoms and stepsisters here, Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) finds herself in just as miserable a situation, with a conniving boss (portrayed by a perfectly lanky Sigourney Weaver) and a duplicitous boyfriend (portrayed with an adequate balance of arrogrance and warmth by Alec Baldwin).
Instead of a glass slipper, Tess slips into a little black dress with plenty of persuasion by her fairy godmother, Cynthia (played by John's big sister, Joan Cusack). The dress and the hair are key to hooking the corporate Prince (portrayed by a dapper Harrison Ford). It is the larger-than-life Cusack as "Cyn" -- Tess' nickname for her best friend from their Staten Island 'hood -- who rules in Working Girl.
Best Supporting Actress Cusack steals more than one scene, such as the one in which she reacts to an expensive dress from the wardrobe of Tess' boss with the line: "It's not even leather," the last word emphatically pronounced "LEH-thuh" as if the price tag on the dress were a working-class faux pas. In that scene, Griffith as Tess nearly faints. Brilliant!
However, Tess delivers my most favorite line in the movie, in a scene with Harrison Ford's character, Jack: "I've got a head for business and a bod for sin." I must admit that it's not only what she says in that scene, but also how she says it. Griffith and Ford's chemistry is as electric in Working Girl as that of Bogey and Bergman or Grant and (Audrey) Hepburn in their own Hollywood classics.
Review ID: 10000000002240067

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