A businessman and a prostitute, interesting…
Pretty Woman was released in early 1990s becoming an instant hit from the box offices and is now regarded as a Romance classic. This one stars Richard Gere as Edward Lewis and Julia Roberts’ breakout role as Vivian Ward. The plot is simple, but quite odd. Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) is a businessman on a business trip in Los Angeles who randomly decides to pick up a prostitute to hang out with… yes, I said a prositute. That prostitute is Vivan Ward (Julia Roberts). The two head back to Edward’s hotel where Vivian first has to change to a more decorous persona. The two soon fall in love and they navigate hard obstacles created by either Edward’s job and busy life, or Vivian’s mistreatment because of her occupation. Woah, that was a pretty short plot summary compared to my usual lengths. Now, let’s get to the critiques.
The Pros
I am actually a huge fan of Richard Gere’s performance in this film. He really transforms himself into the character he’s playing, which is Edward Lewis. He’s great in the arguing scenes with Julia and also comes off really smooth in his scenes as the professional/cool businessman.
Something interesting that I usually don’t commend movies on that I found Pretty Woman did well was the setting and shots of California/Beverly Hills scenery. Scenes where Vivian went shopping were very clear in showing the movie was in Beverly Hills and also helped reinforce that the movie was very centered around income and luxurious material goods. It gave this really cool early 90s feel that left a feeling with me that this movie was to be remembered as iconic.
The Cons
Even though the run time on this movie sits at only 125 minutes (2 hours 5 minutes), it still feels very long. I feel like with a Rom-com the max amount of time in my book is around 105 minutes. Once again, I’m just an amateur with absolutely no experience in producing movies, but I feel this movie could’ve been cut or shortened down so this film could be more concise. Other than this movie not finding a special place in my heart and progressing a little bit slowly in plot events, it has not failed in any other areas.
Garry Marshall took such a different approach when molding the story of a prostitute and a businessman rather than a rich boy and a poor girl. Well, technically I just said the same two things, but both the characters are older and the poor girl is wrapped up in her world of hooking before being detoured by a powerful man instead of just being poor. My obvious praise to the radical storyline of this romance classic is somewhat tainted by this movie just being too long.
Bonus Comments!
Like a lot of other Romance classics such as Pretty in Pink (1986) and Sixteen Candles (1984), I find Pretty Woman is similar in that there’s an unusual romantic relationship either happening or trying to be achieved where the two are polar opposite people. In both Pretty in Pink and Sixteen Candles, Molly Ringwald’s character is trying to get a boy who is rich or a boy who is older and attractive. Pretty Woman is more like Pretty in Pink because of the income focused relationship, but there is still the same structure when it comes to these three romance movies, in which the two lovebirds are being pulled together by love and pushed away involuntarily by some kind of standard/stereotype.
Pretty Woman, a movie that gives you food for thought in the clash between two polar opposites in the world of occupation. The Shobe Score is an 80.