The Plot. ============ A modern day Cinderella style fantasy about a down on her luck prostitute whose luck is about to change when she gets into the car of a handsome, highflying businessman and romance follows.
The Storyline. =============== Street wise, working girl Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) is down on her luck and her rent money, thanks to her flat mate Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo) who had taken some of it to spend on drugs. She has to make sure she earns the cash she needs that night to pay the rent. Her luck changes when she is lucky enough to stumble across handsome businessman Edward Lewis (Richard Gere). He is struggling to drive his lawyer Philip Stuckey's (Jason Alexander's) car let alone find his way back to his hotel. Vivian Comes to his rescue and returns him and his lawyers car back to the hotel and just as she is about to leave after charging him of course, he asks her to accompany to his room. There seems to be an immediate spark between them and then one-hour turns to one night, which then changes to working for him and attending dinners with him for one week. Edward buys Vivian clothes and dine's her in top class restaurants, takes her to business dinners and takes her to a polo match during the week. As the week goes on it is
very clear that romance is blossoming between the two. Suddenly the week is over and so is the deal. It is time for Edward to go back home now that his business is over and Vivien has decided she intends to improve her life and get a better education with the money she has made for working for Edward for a week. Both are in love that is clear to see but still go there separate ways, or do they?
The Acting / My Opinion. ======================== Julie Roberts is given an excellent opportunity in this film to show that she is not just looks but a fantastic actor in this film, and she does not fail to deliver an excellent performance. It is easy to see from the film how versatile her acting abilities are and why she shot to fame after her performance in Pretty Woman. Richard Gere is perfectly matched for the role as handsome businessman Edward Lewis and gives a fantastic performance in every aspect. In addition, this film launched the great working relationship between Roberts and Gere that lead to them both staring in the movie Runaway Bride together. They seem to be able to compliment each others acting ability and shine through a true love relationship with great ease in both movies. Hector Elizondo gives us an excellent performance as the prim and proper hotel manager Barnard Thomspson managing to entwine his unique wit within the character whilst carrying the sensible act across perfectly. Jason Alexander seems to have taken on the role of Slimy, Greedy, Crawling, Sleazy, and Brown Tongued lawyer Philip Stuckey extremely well. He truly makes the character come to life in a very convincing performance that just makes you want to punch him in the mouth. Finally, I wish to say that all the actors in this film seemed to have given an excellent performance and have not failed to produce an extremely watchable and entertaining film for us to enjoy.
The Directing. ============== Garry Marshall delivers an entertaining and amusing film for us to watch with his directing of Pretty Woman. He has managed to achieve a very believable and enjoyable modern day Cinderella story for us to enjoy. Other great films that have benefited from the great directing qualities of Garry Marshall include `Beaches`, `Dear God`, `Exit To Eden` and `Frankie And Johnny`.
Summary. ================ A romantic comedy with the usual love story, happily ever after scenario that incorporates the Cinderella poverty with the Handsome Prince riches qualities across in a modern style. Great motion picture with an equally great soundtrack to accompany it ensuring all the songs is perfectly incorporated with the scene being set. Although, this film seems to be labelled along with many others in the `Chick Flick` category, which seems to happen to all comedy romances these days, I have thoroughly enjoyed watching it again and again and found it entertaining every time.
Favourite Scene. ================= I have to say that though there are quite a few amusing moments in the film I am torn between the scene where Edward Lewis finally punches his slimy lawyer and the scene where Barney Thompson comes to Vivian's rescue in buying some clothes for dinner. Finally, I have to go with the office scene with Barney and Vivian and the moment when he hands her his handkerchief to dry her tears, and she turns around and gives her nose a really good blow into it. It just tickles me when you see his expression upon seeing her do this, every time I watch the film.
Technical Information. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cast. ~~~~~~~~~ Julia Robert ~~~ Vivian Ward Richard Gere ~~~ Edward Lewis Jason Alexander ~~~ Philip Stuckey Hector Elizondo ~~~ Barney Thompson Ralph Bellamy ~~~ James Morse Alex Hyde-White ~~~ David Morse Laura San Giacomo ~~~ Kit De Luca Amy Yasbeck ~~~ Elizabeth Stuckey
Soundtrack. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The sound track to this movie is available on two disc CD from stockists such as play.com, amazon.co.uk and ebay from £8.99 new and £0.01 used and contains all the great songs from the film by artists like Roy Orbison, Huey Lewis and the News, Phil Collins and Roxette.
Pictures of Pretty Woman (DVD)
Julie Roberts and Richard Gere
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
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Production Year: 1992 - Comedy - Director: Tim Robbins - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Ray Wise, Alan Rickman, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Robbins
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Advantages: This movie is warm and funny at the same time, it has a good story line and is very easy to follow Disadvantages: It has some aggresion in it and some bad language
superhuman52 18.07.2004 (18.07.2004)
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Review of Pretty Woman (DVD)
Aug 28th, 2006
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