Working girl Tess McGill finds a new job as a secretary of a powerful New York businesswoman, Katherine Parker. One day, Tess has an excellent business idea, about how a client, Trask, could covertly slip into the media by first acquiring a popular radio network, and Katherine accepts it, but in order to gain fame, she decides to steal it and present it as her own idea. When Katherine breaks a leg during a ski incident and is away, Tess takes charge of her office for a few weeks and decides to execute her idea herself. She meets executive Jack and they fall in love while trying to convince Trask to make the deal. When Katherine returns, she tries to convince Trask that Tess stole her idea, but in the end, Tess prevails.
Even though it was nominated for several awards, by today, romantic comedy "Working Girl" failed to reach that status of a classic, yet it is one of those charmingly dated films from the 80s. That amusing business comedy made in the vein of American films of 30s and 40s of the twentieth century, but with a very palpable touch to the modern society and several small erotic moments, is overall well made, and thanks to it, Melanie Griffith became a star: casting her might have seemed like an untypical choice at first, but she really made Tess a realistic, fragile and sweet character, a one who conveys the sense of living under her possibilities, while trying to rise through the ranks. Harrison Ford is also very good as her potential business partner Jack. The highlight of the film are refreshing feminist touches (Tess is blond, yet clever; her boss is also a woman...), but the flaws are apparent: kitsch, several forced or staged scenes, occasional banal humor and too simplistic approach at times.
"Working Girl" has some brilliant bits. Most of them involve Joan Cusack's character Cynthia, who pretends to be Tess' secretary, thus suddenly smiling for a quick second behind Jack's back before he turns away to look at her. The way Jack and Tess first meet at a party is also clever: he spots her sitting at a bar, and then sits next to her and starts one of the grandest flirting intros on film: "I've been looking for you". - "Why? Do you know me?" - "No, but I promised myself that when I saw you, I would get to know you." He then orders a drink: "I promised myself that when we met, we'd drink tequilla". Since Tess took some medicine to calm down beforehand, the alcohol makes her fall unconscious, and soon the movie makes its first blunder: instead of calling an ambulance or something, Jack carries her to his apartment during the night. Cue the next morning, where Tess wakes up, in her underwear (!), sleeping in the same bed with Jack, shirtless (!). She takes her stuff and simply leaves. Later that day, she goes to a meeting and finds Jack there in the office, thereby finally getting to know his name. It is kind of funny, but the part of her sleeping over at his place without asking for it seems weird and uncalled for today. Some other moments also feel clumsy and poorly staged, for instance the scene where Jack is on the phone in his office, takes his shirt off, pours some water from a thermos, taps his armpits and wipes it with his shirt (?), only to put on another shirt, or the sloppy sequence of Tess and Jack talking outside, eating tacos, while he has a crumb on his lip the entire time. However, one should not criticize too much, since the movie has a soul. It is too light to rival Wilder's "The Apartment", except on one field that surpasses it, Carly Simon's magical song "Let the River Run" that really has to be heard for its sheer harmony and pathos.
Grade:++
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