This Working Girl Loves It

For me, there are a few essential items that make a good chick flick. This movie has all of them:

1. An arch-rival; some one who gets under your skin so much that you want to see her ruined... and you do.

2. A makeover; drab girl turns beautiful with the wave of a mascara wand.

3. Rocky love interest; not just a love interest, but one that is tormented for some reason, usually by lies.

4. More fun than it is realistic. Any good chick movie usually has some quirks and jerks in it, but if it's fun, it doesn't matter.

Working Girl has all of these items and more.

Created in 1988, Working Girl stars Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver and co-stars Joan Cusack and Alec Baldwin. It's the story of a woman, Melanie Griffith, unsatisfied with her job as a secretary because she is capable of much more and is treated with little respect because of her sex.

When the film starts, Griffith is your average gum-snapping secretary who answers the phone in a tough New York accent. Her hair is long and you can tell that she is not afraid of a little AquaNet. When she is fired from her job because, in reaction to her bosses dangling new jobs in front of her face at the cost of a date (which gets out of hand) with their friends, she writes a nasty message about one of them on the office overhead.

Then she moves on to a new job, where Sigourney Weaver is her boss. At first, you think that she's finally found someone who cares about her. I mean, hey, she's a woman right? Quickly, it becomes all to apparent that Sigourney is her worst rival yet. Luckily, Sigourney goes on vacation and breaks her leg. Melanie uses Sigourney's clothes and cuts her hair for a brand new makeover. Then the fun begins.

I wont give away any more of the plot, because it's better if you see it, but let me say that this is one of those movies were you can't help but smile at the end.

Sigourney Weaver plays her part with flair and is even comical at times. Harrison Ford is as charming as ever and Melanie Griffith is sweet and sassy in her role as a New York secretary.

I find the story to be charming because the Melanie Griffith's plight gets its hooks in your early. Also, some of the issues the movie deals with are still applicable to today; we may be more than a decade away from when this movie was made, but bosses still cheat their employees and administrative assistants still get stuck in their jobs because no one will give them a chance. Yes, the hair is dated and the makeup is horrendous, but the song remains the same.

However, I feel one thing that would change about the movie is that I don't it probably wouldn't get an Academy Award. At the time it won the award, this movie seemed like it was on the cutting edge of film. Nowadays, it's a lot less gutsy and sexism isn't as much of a concern as it was then.

I watch this movie whenever I am in need of a pick-me-up. I cheer when Melanie Griffith tells her boss off, I laugh when Sigourney Weaver breaks her leg and I always finish the movie feeling a little more optomistic about my own job as an administrative assistant.

Overall, I love this film. It may not be Academy Award winning material, but it is still inspiring and a whole lot of fun.