Working Girl (1988) * * * *

Directed by:  Mike Nichols

Starring:  Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt

Here is a romantic comedy taking place in the world of mergers and acquisitions where some of the people dare to be sweet or even ethical.     It's a cutthroat world and maybe the movie is more fantasy than reality, but in the end it's moving and we cheer as the heroine finally gains her reward.     What else more can you ask for?   

"You can break the rules plenty when you get there, but for someone like me, you can't get there without breaking the rules."     Such is the quandary of Tess McGill (Griffith), a secretary (using the lingo from 1988) nearing 30 from Staten Island trying to break into the world of high finance.    She graduated from night school with a degree in business, but she is forever pigeonholed into the role of secretary.    Maybe it's her hair, which she eventually cuts because, "In order to be taken seriously, you have to have serious hair."     Tess is aching for a chance to prove herself, which comes in the unlikeliest of ways.

After being bumped from job to job, partly because she butts heads with her superiors, Tess becomes the secretary of Katherine Parker (Weaver) at a mergers and acquisitions firm  who promises their working relationship will be a "two way street".    Tess approaches Katherine with an idea for their client to purchase a radio network and make the firm millions.    Katherine shoots down the idea, but conspires to underhandedly present it as her own to an outside firm.     Katherine is soon laid up for a while after a skiing accident and after Tess discovers the scam, she poses as a mergers and acquisitions executive to push the proposal forward with the willing help of mergers specialist Jack Trainer (Ford).  

Before you say "The Secret of My Success", you will realize Working Girl operates on a much more intelligent level.     Tess is working to prove herself in a world to which she doesn't yet belong.    She has the credentials, but not the experience.    She doesn't have the experience because she no one will give her a chance to gain any.    The Secret of My Success never rose above dopey sitcom level thinking.    Working Girl is more about business politics than just the pursuit of the almighty dollar.     I'm still not sure what Michael J. Fox hoped to gain from his deception in The Secret of My Success, but in Working Girl Tess' motivations are much more clear.    She wants to get in on the ground floor of big business and stick it to her lying, treacherous boss.

Naturally, Tess and Jack fall in love while working on the merger.    Jack is unaware that Tess is a secretary.   Tess is unaware that Jack and Katherine are an item, although Jack wants to put an end to that as quickly as possible.     I really enjoyed the performances from the leads.    Griffith (Oscar nominee for Best Actress) is a plucky, smart hero we can root for, all the while maintaining, "I have a head for business and a bod for sin."    We believe her.    Ford is not simply a romantic foil or a dupe.    He acts ethically and loves Tess.     Once Tess' deception is discovered, he doesn't abandon Tess, but stands by her because she is the right person for the job.    And he loves her.   

Weaver (Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress) takes a potentially one-dimensional villain role and turns it into something special.     She is calm, soft spoken, and sometimes completely taken with herself to great comic effect.    She says of Jack, "He will marry me because I'm smart, successful, and after all...I'm me."    Joan Cusack (also Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress) has some scene stealing moments as Tess' best friend Cynthia, a fellow secretary with a Noo Yawk accent who goes along with the deception....to a point.

Working Girl moves along with swift confidence thanks to legendary director Mike Nichols, who had forgotten more about comedy direction than most will ever know.     Kevin Wade's screenplay takes a plot that has formula written all over it and gives us a surprising feel-good story in a world where feel-good moments are fleeting.     Working Girl was made during a time when Gordon Gekko's ethics were more in play on Wall Street, but it finds a way to be touching in a cruel world.