Because the film stars Richard Gere, Hollywood’s most successful male playboy, and because it’s about his character falling in love with a prostitute, it is surprising that “Pretty Woman” is such an innocent movie – that it’s the sweetest and most genuine love story since “The Princess Bride.” Here is movie that could have taken us down a cruel road in the depths of evil, and it shines with romance.
This appears to be made of realism, all right. It stars Gere as an out-of-town millionaire, visiting Los Angeles, who borrows his friend’s car and gets lost on Hollywood Boulevard. He asks a prostitute for directions to his hotel. She offers to tell him, for five dollars. For $10, she’ll guide him there.
He agrees. It is important to understand that he is looking for direction, not a one-night stand, and that he has broken up – distantly and proficiently – with his current girlfriend only half an hour earlier in a brief telephone conversation. The girl gets into the car, and it turns out that she knows a lot about cars. This maneuvers him, and the result is that he invites her to stay with him in his hotel suite. However, not for a one-night stand, of course, he says. However, she says that he still must pay her.
She is played by Julia Roberts as a woman who is as smart as she is beautiful, which makes her very smart. Roger Ebert said, “Like many prostitutes, she is able to perform the mental trick of standing outside of what she does, of detaching herself and believing that her real self is not involved.” That’s what she does. She overhears one of his telephone conversations and wants to know what he does.
Ebert mentioned, “He's a takeover artist. He buys companies, takes them apart and sells the pieces for more than he paid for the whole.” “But what about the people who work for those companies?” she wants to know. “People have nothing to do with it,” he explains. “It’s strictly business.” She responds, Oh, then you do the same thing I do.” What is happening at these parts is that the characters are developing as believable, original and sympathetic. Gere and Roberts work easily together. We feel that their characters not only like one another but feel comfortable with one another. The thing is both trusts the feeling of comfort. They’ve been hurt a lot; they depend on a face of sarcastic fairness. Everything is business. He offers her money to spend one week with him, she accepts, he buys her clothes, they have a one-night stand and inevitably (this being the movies) they fall in love.
They fall into a certain romantic type of love, the type you don’t really see in the movies currently – a love base don staying awake after the lights are out and revealing life secrets. This is the first Gere film that has more confession than nudity. Ebert said, “During the day, the lovers try to recover their cold detachment, to maintain the distance between them. If the love story in "Pretty Woman" is inspired by "Cinderella," the daytime scenes are "Pygmalion," as the hotel manager (Hector Elizondo) takes a liking to his best customer's "niece" and tutors her on which fork to use at a formal dinner.”
There is a subplot where Gere’s attempts to take over a corporation where an old millionaire, played by Ralph Bellamy, is in charge – a man whose lifework he is ready to ruin, even though he likes him.
Ebert noted, “There are broad Freudian hints that Gere's entire career is a form of revenge against his father and that Bellamy may be the father figure he is searching for. But he has an impulse to hurt what he loves, and there is one particularly painful scene in which Gere reveals to a friend that Roberts is a prostitute and Roberts gains a certain insight by how hurtful that betrayal is.”
Ebert admitted, “I mentioned that the movie is sweet and innocent. It is; it protects its fragile love story in the midst of cynicism and compromise.” The performances are important for that reason. Gere plays new roles here. His arrogance is gone, and he’s more hesitant, proper, even shy. Roberts does an interesting thing. She gives her character an uncontrollably lively sense of humor and then lets her spend the movie trying to control it. Actresses who can do that and look great can have whatever they want in Hollywood.
Ebert noted, “Gere's career is on a roll right now, after this movie and the completely opposite, swaggeringly erotic character he plays in "Internal Affairs." In Esquire magazine a few months ago, a collection of Hollywood jokes included one where the punch line was that a producer was going to be stuck with Richard Gere in his movie. After these two movies, the joke doesn't work anymore.”
The movie was directed by Garry Marshall, whose films deceive an innate good nature, and it is about as warmhearted as movie about two cold radicals can possibly be. Ebert admitted, “I understand that earlier versions of the screenplay were more hard-boiled and downbeat, and that Marshall underlined the romance.”
Ebert ended his review by saying, “There could indeed be, I suppose, an entirely different movie made from the same material - a more realistic film, in which the cold economic realities of the lives of both characters would make it unlikely they could stay together. And, for that matter, a final scene involving a limousine, a fire escape and some flowers is awkward and feels tacked on. But by the end of the movie I was happy to have it close as it does.”
This is a different type of romance that is unique and makes it stand out. You should see this if you’re a fan of Gere and/or Roberts. I would recommend this, especially since the title is the same as a famous Roy Orbison song that plays in the movie.
Stay tuned next week to see what I will review in “Julia Roberts Month.”
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