Working Girl is a 1988
romantic comedy filmRomantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
written by
Kevin WadeKevin Wade is an American screenwriter and television producer.Born in Chappaqua, New York, Wade is a graduate of Connecticut College. He wrote the play Key Exchange, which was produced off-Broadway in 1981...
and directed by
Mike NicholsMike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...
. It tells the inspiring story of a
Staten IslandStaten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
-raised
secretaryA secretary, or administrative assistant, is a person whose work consists of supporting management, including executives, using a variety of project management, communication & organizational skills. These functions may be entirely carried out to assist one other employee or may be for the benefit...
, Tess McGill (
Melanie GriffithMelanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
), working in the
mergers and acquisitionsMergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...
department of a
Wall StreetWall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
investment bank. When her boss, Katharine Parker (
Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
), breaks her leg skiing, Tess uses her absence and connections, including Parker's errant beau Jack Trainer (
Harrison FordHarrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
), to put forward her idea for a merger deal.
The film features a notable opening sequence following
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
-bound commuters on the
Staten Island FerryThe Staten Island Ferry is a passenger ferry service operated by the New York City Department of Transportation that runs between the boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island.-Overview:...
accompanied by
Carly SimonCarly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
's song "
Let the River Run"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
", for which she received the Academy Award for Best Song. The film was a box office hit, grossing a worldwide total of $103 million.
Griffith and Weaver were nominated for
Academy Award for Best ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
and
Academy Award for Best Supporting ActressPerformance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
, respectively. Griffith lost to
Jodie FosterAlicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
. Weaver lost to
Geena DavisVirginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actress, film producer, writer, former fashion model, and a women's Olympics archery team semi-finalist...
. Both actresses won the Golden Globe for their work in the film. Interestingly, Weaver was nominated for Best Actress for another film that year (Gorillas in the Mist), and so she lost to Jodie Foster as well. The film itself was also nominated for Best Picture at the
61st Academy AwardsThe 61st Academy Awards were presented on March 29, 1989 at the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles. The date had been moved from its usual Monday telecast due to Easter, which was on March 26. For this show, there was no "official" host as the show opened with a stage-show featuring Merv Griffin, Snow...
.
Plot
Tess McGill (
Melanie GriffithMelanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
) is a smart working-class stockbroker's secretary who has recently earned a bachelor's degree in
BusinessA business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
by attending college at night. Her goal is to move out of the
secretarial poolA secretarial pool or typing pool is a group of secretaries working at a company available to assist any executive without a permanently assigned secretary. These groups have been reduced or eliminated where executives have been assigned responsibility for writing their own letters and other...
and into an executive position. As she turns 30, her dream remains unrealized; because her education was not acquired at a prestigious school, she cannot gain entry to her firm's training program for recent college graduates. After being misled into thinking that her boss, David Lutz (
Oliver PlattOliver James Platt is a Canadian-American actor. He is currently starring in the Showtime original series, The Big C with Laura Linney.-Early life:...
), is helping her get a better job, Tess finds herself set up with his lascivious colleague, played by (
Kevin SpaceyKevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
). She then gets in trouble by publicly calling her boss a "sleazoid pimp with a tiny little dick" on the office's stock-ticker crawl display.
Tess is reassigned as secretary to a new financial executive for Petty Marsh, Katharine Parker (
Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
). Seemingly supportive, Katharine encourages Tess to share her ideas. Tess suggests to Katharine that Trask Industries, one of the firm's clients, should invest in radio, in order to gain more of a foothold in the media market. When Katharine seems interested, Tess begins to feel her luck is finally changing. However, when Katharine breaks her leg on a skiing trip in Europe, she asks Tess to house-sit for her. While at Katharine's place, Tess accidentally finds evidence that Katharine was planning to steal Tess' idea and pass it off as her own. That night, when Tess returns home, she finds her boyfriend Mick Dugan (
Alec BaldwinAlexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
) in bed with another woman, Doreen DiMucci (
Elizabeth WhitcraftElizabeth Whitcraft is an American actress who played small parts in some notable American films in the 1980s and 1990s. She was often credited as Liza Whitcraft or Liz Whitcraft....
). Disillusioned with Katharine and disgusted with Mick, Tess returns to Katharine's apartment and begins to hatch her own plan.
The next day, Tess calls
Dewey Stone executive Jack Trainer (
Harrison FordHarrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
), using her boss's name as an entrée. She tells Jack that she has a proposal to run by him and sets up a meeting. The evening before the meeting, Tess attends a merger party, wearing a sophisticated new hairstyle and an expensive cocktail dress from Katharine's closet, which she models beforehand for her friend Cynthia (
Joan CusackJoan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
), "Cyn." Upon learning the dress is worth $6,000, Tess has a minor panic attack. To calm her nerves, she accepts a Valium from Cyn.
At the party, she unknowingly encounters Jack, who never mentions his name, and has a few drinks with him, but passes out from the combination of alcohol and pills. Jack takes her to his place in a cab; Tess wakes up the next morning in Jack's bed wearing only her underwear and leaves before Jack awakens. On entering the meeting, she realizes Jack is the man with whom she spent the night. She submits her proposal to him but his colleagues seem uninterested. Back at her own desk, Tess laments about her meeting to Cyn, and is mortified about the previous evening. Jack then unexpectedly arrives and Cyn—at Tess' frantic request—pretends to be Tess' secretary, while she pretends Katherine's office is her own. Jack announces that they will proceed with Tess' pitch. He suggests Metro radio network as the best target for Trask Industries to buy.
After Cyn’s engagement party, Mick and Tess officially break up. Days later, Tess and Jack crash Oren Trask's (
Philip Bosco-Personal life:Bosco was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Margaret Raymond , a policewoman, and Philip Lupo Bosco, a carnival worker. Bosco went to high school at St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City. He attended the Catholic University of Washington, D.C. Bosco married Nancy...
) daughter’s (
Barbara GarrickBarbara Garrick is an American actress who portrayed DeDe Halcyon Day in the three television miniseries based on Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City novels. She was nominated for a Gemini Award in 1999 for Further Tales of the City.Garrick was born in Los Angeles, California and graduated from...
) wedding, intending to make an appointment and pitch their plan. They succeed and meet with two of his executives. Trask is interested. Back at Jack's apartment, the pair end up in bed together. Tess wants to reveal herself to Jack, but upon learning he's in a relationship with Katharine, decides not to.
On the day of the meeting to discuss the details of the merger, Katharine returns home with her leg still in plaster, and enlists Tess' aid as her personal assistant at home, asking her to pick up medicine at the pharmacy. At Katharine's insistence, Jack visits her, but extricates himself quickly. Tess, who was hiding in the closet to avoid him seeing her, emerges after he leaves, gives Katharine her pills, and rushes out of the apartment, accidentally leaving her appointment book behind. Katharine reads it and becomes enraged after she discovers what Tess has been up to.
At the merger meeting, Jack and Tess realize they're in love. Katharine storms into the meeting, accuses Tess of stealing her idea, and announces that she is just a secretary. Tess is unable to make the others understand that Katharine is the liar and leaves the meeting in shame. At Cyn’s wedding, she finds that Mick is moving on with Doreen.
Back at the office, Tess cleans out her desk and packs her belongings. She bumps into Jack, Katharine, and Trask in the lobby. As Katharine tries to lead the group onto the elevator, Jack refuses to come, stating that Tess is the team leader and he believes her. He and Tess convince Trask that the merger was Tess' idea, by showing him how she thought of it. Trask corroborates this by asking Katharine to recall what inspired her to put Trask Industries and radio together, which she, of course, couldn't. Trask assures Katharine she will lose her job over this duplicity and she haughtily stalks out in disgrace. He then offers Tess an "entry-level" job, which she happily accepts.
Tess moves in with Jack and starts her first day of her new job at Trask Industries. When she arrives, she sees a woman in an office, talking on the phone, and presumes she is to be the woman's secretary. However, it is quickly revealed that the woman is, in fact, Tess’ secretary (
Amy AquinoAmy Aquino is an American television, film, and stage actress.-Background and education:Aquino is the daughter of Adele and Salvatore Aquino...
), and Tess realizes that Trask's definition of "entry-level" involves the opportunities she had dreamed of. She insists her new secretary treat her as a colleague, rather than a superior, proving she will be a very different boss from Katharine. Tess then excitedly calls Cyn and tells her she has her own office, and Cyn shouts to everyone that Tess has finally made it out of the typing pool.
Soundtrack
- "Let the River Run
"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
" - Carly SimonCarly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
- "In Love (Instrumental)" - Carly Simon
- "The Man That Got Away
"The Man that Got Away" is a popular song, published in 1953 and was written for the 1954 version of the movie A Star Is Born. The music was written by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics by Ira Gershwin...
" (Instrumental)
- "The Scar" (Instrumental) - Carly Simon
- "Let the River Run" - The St. Thomas Choir Of Men And Boys
- "Lady In Red" - Chris De Burgh
Chris de Burgh is a British/Irish singer-songwriter. He is most famous for his 1986 love song "The Lady in Red".-Early life:...
- "Carlotta's Heart" - Carly Simon
- "Looking Through Katherine's House" - Carly Simon
- "Poor Butterfly
"Poor Butterfly" is a popular song. It was inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly and contains a brief musical quote from the act 2 duet Tutti i fior in the verse....
" (Instrumental) - Sonny Rollins
- "I'm So Excited
"I'm So Excited" is a song by American recording artists The Pointer Sisters. The track, written by The Pointer Sisters and Trevor Lawrence, was originally released in 1982 and saw a re-release in 1984. It is considered to be one of the group's signature songs.-Background:The song appeared...
" - Pointer SistersThe Pointer Sisters are an American pop/R&B recording act from Oakland, California that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning over three decades, their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, disco, jazz, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country and rock.The...
Box office
Working Girl was released on December 23, 1988 in 1,051 theaters and grossed USD $4.7 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $63.8 million in North America and $39.2 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $103 million.
Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics with an 84% rating at
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
and a 73 metascore at
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
.
Chicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
film critic
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "The plot of
Working Girl is put together like clockwork. It carries you along while you're watching it, but reconstruct it later and you'll see the craftsmanship". In her review for the
Washington Post, Rita Kempley described Melanie Griffith as "luminous as
Marilyn MonroeMarilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, as adorable as one of Disney's singing mice. She clearly has the stuff of a megastar, and the movie glows from her".
Janet MaslinJanet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
, in her review for
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, wrote, "Mike Nichols, who directed
Working Girl, also displays an uncharacteristically blunt touch, and in its later stages the story remains lively but seldom has the perceptiveness or acuity of Mr. Nichols's best work". In his review for
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Richard Corliss wrote, "Kevin Wade shows this in his smart screenplay, which is full of the atmospheric pressures that allow stars to collide. Director Mike Nichols knows this in his bones. He encourages Weaver to play (brilliantly) an airy shrew. He gives Ford a boyish buoyancy and Griffith the chance to be a grownup mesmerizer".
Winner
- 1988: Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
- 1988: Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1950...
(Melanie GriffithMelanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
)
- 1988: Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1944 for a performance in a motion picture released in the previous year....
(Sigourney WeaverSigourney Weaver is an American actress. She is best known for her critically acclaimed role of Ellen Ripley in the four Alien films: Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection, for which she has received worldwide recognition .Other notable roles include Dana...
)
- 1988: Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
- "Let the River Run"
- 1988: Academy Award for Best Song - "Let the River Run
"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
" (Carly SimonCarly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
)
- 1990: Grammy Awards of 1990
The 32nd Grammy Awards were held in 1990. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the previous year.-General:*Record of the Year**Arif Mardin & Bette Midler for "Wind Beneath My Wings"*Album of the Year...
for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television - "Let the River Run"Let the River Run" is a song first featured in the 1988 film Working Girl, with music and lyrics by Carly Simon. The song won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989...
" (Composing and arranging)
Academy Award nominations
- Best Actress in a Leading Role
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
(Melanie Griffith)
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Joan Cusack)
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
(Sigourney Weaver)
- Best Director
The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
- Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #91
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Tess McGill - Nominated Hero
- Katharine Parker - Nominated Villain
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "I have a head for business and a bod for sin." - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers - #87
- AFI's 10 Top 10
AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
- Nominated Romantic Comedy
Shooting locations
Many scenes were shot in the New Brighton section of
Staten IslandStaten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
The lobby of Tess' office building was located in the
7 World Trade Center7 World Trade Center is a building in New York City located across from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan. It is the second building to bear that name and address in that location. The original structure was completed in 1987 and was destroyed in the September 11 attacks...
, which was destroyed in the September 11 attacks. The scenes of Tess'
secretarial poolA secretarial pool or typing pool is a group of secretaries working at a company available to assist any executive without a permanently assigned secretary. These groups have been reduced or eliminated where executives have been assigned responsibility for writing their own letters and other...
and Katharine Parker's office were filmed at 1 State Street Plaza at the corner of Whitehall and State Street.
One Chase Manhattan PlazaOne Chase Manhattan Plaza is a banking skyscraper located in the downtown Manhattan Financial District of New York City, between Pine, Liberty, Nassau, and William Streets. Construction on the building was completed in 1961...
was featured at the end as the Trask Industries building.
TV series
Working GirlWorking Girl is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from April to July 1990. Loosely based on the 1988 film of the same name starring Melanie Griffith, the series stars Sandra Bullock as Tess McGill , in a role that was initially meant for Nancy McKeon.-Synopsis:Tess McGill is a spunky,...
was also made into a short-lived
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television series in
1990For the American TV schedule, see: 1990-91 United States network television schedule.The year 1990 in television involved some significant events.Below is a list of television-related events in 1990.-Events:-Debuts:-1950s:...
, starring
Sandra BullockSandra Annette Bullock is an Academy Award winning American actress and producer who rose to fame in the 1990s after roles in successful films such as Demolition Man, Speed, The Net, A Time to Kill, and While You Were Sleeping. She continued with films such as Miss Congeniality, The Lake House,...
as Tess McGill. It only lasted 12 episodes.
External links