Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Mr-Fusion "Working Girl" is one of those movies I've put off for years; and I guess it's partly because I'd known it as a romantic comedy, but mostly because I've never been a Melanie Griffith fan.Turns out she's the movie's best feature, fitting well as an ambitious secretary who can't get ahead, someone who takes the corporate ladder by force. Actually, all three of the stars were ideal, but Ford and Weaver seemed to be supporting Griffith. She just seemed to embody that empowered career woman who sheds her mousy constraints.And it is a romantic comedy, but a subtle one. The humor is expressed in the dialogue and I found myself laughing more than I'd expected. It's an '80s movie down to its very DNA and pretty much everything about it still holds up.7/10

grantss Entertaining comedy-drama. Ending is a bit Hollywoodish but the setup and plot development are good. Also has a bit of female-corporate-empowerment message, though not a very powerful one.Solid performance from Melanie Griffith in the lead role. Signourney Weaver, especially, and Harrison Ford outperform Griffith though. Decent support performances from Joan Cusack and Alec Baldwin. Interesting to note that the cast includes Kevin Spacey, Olympia Dukakis and Oliver Platt in minor roles and David Duchovny in a very minor, fleeting, role.

jimbo-53-186511 Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) starts a new job with Petty Marsh who are a mergers & acquisitions company. Her boss Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) breaks her leg in a skiing accident and asks Tess to take care of things in her absence. However, when Tess discovers that Katharine is passing off one of Tess's 'acquisition' ideas as her own, she assumes Katharine's position whilst she's laid up in hospital and with the help of Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) Tess is intent on sealing the deal without Katharine.Aside from being boring, the screenplay for this film is so badly written & unconvincing that it's just laughable. Let's take a look at a few examples;1) Katharine tells Tess that she can be in charge of the company whilst she's laid up in hospital (even though she's only been in the job 5 minutes). Is this really believable?2) Katharine allows Tess to access her apartment to sort out her dry cleaning etc even though she's left audio evidence of her deceit and has also left evidence of her deceit on her home computer. Why would she allow Tess access to her apartment knowing that this evidence is there in her apartment and knowing that Tess could access it? It's just stupid beyond belief.3) Tess and Jack end up hooking up together even though their initial encounter is based on deceit, deceit and more deceit. Yeah right!! It just got worse and worse as it went along.Aside from the scripting problems, the film was just downright boring. The story wasn't particularly interesting - in fact it got so bad that I was considering stopping watching this film at about the 1 hour mark. I decided to persevere hoping that it would improve, but it never did. Griffith & Ford just shared no chemistry, their romance was ridiculous and all of the characters were nasty and unlikeable.The only very slight positive is that it's a 'feel good' film in the sense of getting one over on one's boss and it's certainly noteworthy. However in this film it takes a long, boring and ridiculous route in order to reach its rather obvious conclusion.

rowmorg Mike Nichols got a brilliant performance out of his leading lady Melanie Griffiths (pre-face-lift version). She must die looking at this picture now: her bum was enormous, her breasts were too small (just like most actresses'), her face and neck were all puffy and OMG! that appalling hair-do at the start: it really stank and could have put you off the picture for all time. However, it gets really good as Nichols lets a strong script speak and teases good performances out of his players. It's all about the "glass ceiling" that prevents secretaries ever breaking out of their shitty jobs and getting into the executive ranks, and it savours an extra element in showing a female executive (guess what?) stealing a great idea from her secretary. It gives a horribly clear glimpse of the sectionalised American society (workers, executives, super-rich) that makes a mockery of the Statue of Liberty past which the working girls sail in the ferry in the opening scene. All-in-all, a strong satirical film that has stood the test of time, even with its idiotic haircuts.