Picture this: The Statue of Liberty looking down on a city full of people, people who call themselves New Yorkers yet mostly came from somewhere else long before they found themselves here. This is a city of wonders, more diverse than any other city in the world. It’s the center for the arts, commerce, big business and the streets are filled with women walking to their various jobs wearing tennis shoes while carrying high heeled shoes in their hands. Punctuating this image is the melodious vocals of Carly Simon singing Let the River Run, referring to New York as the New Jerusalem, a land of opportunity. It is simultaneously cheesy and uplifting and it encapsulates the very essence of what director Mike Nichols will convey over the next two hours.
1988’s Working Girl was a critical darling that incorporated the real struggles women in corporate America face when trying to establish themselves in the working world. For women it is an everyday reality that a job interview may end up in sexual harassment or that an invite for a drink may be a pretext to sex. The old saying “It’s a man’s world” is very much represented here where the women are relegated to mostly working in cramped cubicles, answering to men. Men in power are depicted as addicts and pigs, using their positions of authority to seduce women desperate to better their lot in life. When a woman is shown in a management role, personified in the character of Katherine Parker (Sigourney Weaver), she is a shrew of a woman who is condescending and waspish, full of herself and willing to stab people in the back to elevate her own status. This is the world established in the first few minutes of the film and it is a grim one indeed. Mercifully the character of Katherine is temporarily taken out in a hilarious scene on the ski slopes and we get to see that not everyone in the city is as sleazy or self-centered as those we’ve already seen.
As the title suggests, this is a film about a working girl. Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is an ambitious working class woman from Staten Island with dreams of an executive position. Despite having a business degree her boss and the men she works with treat her like a typical blonde bimbo even though her brains have seriously benefited the company. Eventually, after her coworkers set her up for an interview with a sleazeball who is using the interview as an excuse to get in her pants, she’s had enough and quits her job. Her live-in boyfriend Mick Dugan (Alec Baldwin) is just as big of a pig, always buying her sexy lingerie, instead of practical clothes, for her birthday and one evening she comes home early, catching him in bed with another woman. The two are caught red handed and he has the nerve to try and convince her that “it’s not what it seems,” demonstrating just how little respect he has for her.
Tess soon finds another job, this time working as a secretary for a female boss, Katherine, who promotes the idea of teamwork and sharing success. She comes across as nurturing and caring, encouraging Tess to share her ideas. When Tess approaches her with a proposal that will solve a problem involving a company, Trask Industries, wanting to get into the television business, Katherine seems intrigued. Tess’s idea involves convincing Trask to buy into radio at first since it’s an easier endeavor to get a foothold into and can be spun into a television venture later. Katherine eventually tells Tess that it won’t work and dismisses the idea. On a skiing trip, Katherine breaks her leg and will be held up in the hospital for weeks. Tess takes over duties both at the office and at Katherine’s residence where she discovers Katherine has stolen the idea of the radio merger and intends to pass it off as her own. With Katherine temporarily out of the way, Tess poses as the boss and decides to pursue Trask before Katherine can return and take away her chance to succeed. She borrows some of Katherine’s clothes, cuts her hair to appear more professional, and attends a gathering on Katherine’s behalf, meeting Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford), a mergers and acquisitions associate who can help her get her ideas across to Trask before her boss can return and upset the whole thing. Tess and Jack fall for each other and he intends to break off a previous relationship, a relationship he has with Katherine, herself.
Workplace inequality and expectations are a big theme in Working Girl. From the first scenes we get a glimpse behind the scenes of this. Men don’t have to wear a separate pair of shoes to walk the streets of Manhattan. The women, however, are expected to wear high heeled shoes in the office, something that isn’t practical for any real length of walking and thus they have to carry the high heels while wearing tennis shoes out on the streets. Screenwriter Kevin Wade observed this behavior while visiting New York City and wrote it into the opening scene, a visual short hand message about the career woman in the city. The women are also subjected to the bad behaviors of men. Tess’s interview with a smarmy potential employer, played by Kevin Spacey, is nothing more than a ploy for him to try and get her high or drunk and have sex with her. The men in these early scenes see the working women as mere objects that they can do with as they please.
Tess is played up against type by Melanie Griffith who lobbied for the role after seeing the script. When we first see her she is dolled up in the excessives of late 80’s fashion complete with the overly teased hair held in place with a full spray can of Aqua Net. Later, once she takes on the persona of her boss, she gets a more sensible haircut to look more professional. She struggles with her self image and esteem, forced to find the courage to step up and fight to make her dreams happen. Jack Trainer will come into her room in one scene whistling the iconic music of The Wizard of Oz “If I only had a…(brain, heart, nerve, etc.)” representing all the stuff she actually has without being fully aware of it. Throughout the course of the film she will find all of these things within herself and utilize them to make all of her dreams come true. She steps out of her comfort zone and makes it all happen with the support of her best friend, Cynthia (Joan Cusack) and the know how from Jack.
The acting, especially the three females, is spot on. Sigourney Weaver spent much of her early career playing dramatic roles. Her comedic breakthrough was in 1984’s Ghostbustersand she’s not tasked to be funny in that film. Here she gets a juicy role to sink her teeth into, tasked to be both humorous and shrewish at the same time. It’s a delightfully over-the-top performance that at first seems odd to be deserving an Academy Award nomination for it. Where her acting really shines though is in her final scene when she has been outed and goes into panic mode. Her confidence and demeanor are shattered and she looks like an animal in a trap. It’s startling how good she is in this moment. All the emotions of panic, fear and hatred are on her face simultaneously. Joan Cusack doesn’t get a lot of screen time but she represents all the women who don’t make the big push to elevate themselves. She’s super supportive of Tess but stays behind, working in a large group of cubicles with a bunch of other women mostly destined to stay right where they are. Melanie is the real revelation though, playing off all her insecurities and vulnerabilities while also demonstrating just how motivated and smart she really is. She’s a little shy and nervous but behind all of that is a mind capable of seeing patterns and putting together information most others would look right past. Melanie would never again get a role as great as this one and she knocks it out of the park.
Tess’s character is proof that one does not need to be a terrible person to get ahead in the business world. She charms Trask and impresses him with her ideas and how she puts things together. This ultimately earns her an entry level position in his company complete with an office and a secretary/assistant of her own. The film closes out with her realizing she no longer works in a cubicle. Her new secretary, weary of what type of boss she’s just inherited, is eased by Tess’s positive attitude and desire to not be the type of boss Katherine was to her. The camera pans out of the office building as we see dozens and dozens of offices in just this one building, people working at desks just like her. The working girls.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Douglas Wick
Best Director: Mike Nichols
Best Actress: Melanie Griffith
Best Supporting Actress: Joan Cusack
Best Supporting Actress: Sigourney Weaver
Best Original Song: “Let the Music Run” by Carly Simon (won)
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Release Date: December 21, 1988
Running Time: 113 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Joan Cusack
Directed By: Mike Nichols
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