WORKING GIRL
A film review by Serdar Yegulalp
Copyright 1997 Serdar Yegulalp
CAPSULE: One of the best American comedies of recent years.
Pity the plight of the modern personal assistant. Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a smart cookie who would probably be a good player in the financial world, if it weren't for the fact that she's landlocked. Nobody listens to a secretary for tips on mergers and acquisitions, even if she does know what she's talking about. Especially with that hair, and those bracelets, and that squeaky voice that charms her loutish boyfriend and absolutely no one else.
One day, Tess gets a job as an assistant to a new boss in the mergers and acquisitions department of the financial firm she works in. Katharine Parker (played deliciously by Sigourney Weaver) is Serious with the cap S. Everything about this woman bespeaks of authority, and it starts to rub off on Tess. Not only that, but Ms. Parker likes to hear Tess's ideas. She's got an idol. One great scene has Tess listening to Dictaphone recordings of her idol and trying to modulate her voice.
Then Ms. Parker breaks her leg on a skiing trip and is laid up for some time, giving Tess access to Katharine's home (someone has to let the cleaning lady in, right?), personal computer, and phone logs. And there she discovers that Katharine has stolen one of her best ideas and passed it off as her own. (As if this wasn't bad enough, she returns home from this humiliation to find her boyfriend being unfaithful. It never rains...)
Tess steams for a bit, and then decides to turn things around. Apparently Katharine was going to get in touch with a fellow named Jack Trainer about this idea. Tess dresses up in some of Katharine's own finery and presents herself to Jack as an associate of Katharine's (not Katharine herself, mercifully!)... and then things really go wild.
I hope from this description the movie doesn't sound like a dumb comedy of impersonation. It is not. WORKING GIRL is a smart, intelligent and incredibly well-written movie that takes all of its characters seriously, including Katharine. Another movie would have made Katharine unpalatable from start to finish; Katharine is very likeable when she's on screen -- she's just doing the wrong thing, and sees it as being business as usual.
The movie also features one of Harrison Ford's best performances. With a name like "Jack Trainer", we're expecting a wolf -- instead, we get a man who's got a sense of class and a sense of humor about himself. Tess and Jack like each other immediately -- each sees the other as a wonderful relief from the run of the mill they've grown accustomed to. Ford is incredibly funny when let loose in a story like this (so unlike the dismal SABRINA), and is one of the best things in the movie.
Mike Nichols' direction is smooth and unobtrusive, and lets all the best moments in the screenplay come out unobscured -- a critical thing in a comedy, since bad timing or a break in the mood would have ruined everything. Even the ending, which could have been a complete gimmee, is on just the right note, with everyone getting precisely what they deserve. Even those of us who have never seen the inside of a corporate boardroom will empathize -- and laugh.
Four out of four power ties.
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