Description

Clever secretary Tess (Melanie Griffith) is constantly frustrated in her attempts to become an executive broker; even her new female boss (Sigourney Weaver) steals her ideas and takes the credit. When the tyrannical boss breaks her leg skiing Tess is left in charge of the office and the canny working girl takes over her boss’ portfolio, wardrobe (and boyfriend) with excellent results – until a vengeful Weaver returns. With Harrison Ford. In the ensuing years since Working Girl was released, Harrison Ford has never given such a charming and witty performance, Sigourney Weaver hasn?t been given quite the same kind of scenery-chewing role, and Melanie Griffith simply hasn?t got near doing anything this good again. And yet in Mike Nichols? excellent romantic comedy, they all gel in a film with eminent rewatch value. The premise is fairly simple. Griffith?s lowly secretary gets a job with Weaver?s megabitch boss. The former is unhappy at home and work, while the latter is unscrupulous and underhand, and happy to pass off one of Griffith?s good ideas as her own. Yet when Weaver?s character is incapacitated, in steps Griffith, who quickly attracts the professional and personal attention of Ford, as she attempts to navigate her way to the top–until Weaver reappears on the scene? In lesser hands, all this could become routine Hollywood nonsense, yet here it really clicks. Griffith effectively brokered her career off the back of her performance here, yet all three leads are in fine form, with a strong supporting cast and a delicious script to fall back on. Elements have certainly dated, and the world in many ways has moved on, yet there?s still plenty of room in it for films as good as this one.–Jon Foster