Working Girl (1988)
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Working Girl: Movie Review
Sometimes in life we have to start at the bottom, but with hard work we can move our way to the top. The movie Working Girl is filled with life lessons; it takes hard work in order to move up in life, and we have to learn to become independent and speak up even if it means speaking up against a higher power in order to be heard. I particularly liked the lessons throughout the movie and the comedy the writers add to the story. This movie was well written particularly because, many people can relate to it. This movie is relatable on many of levels, not just careers; it can relate to any situation where we have to start at the bottom and work our way up.
Working Girl shows a change in being a follower to being a leader and also how we move up in the world. Since this is a career film and most career films show how one moves up in the work field, Working Girl also shows climbing the ladder in career field. The main character, Tess, does an excellent job of showing a change in her status and how a transition from being a follower to becoming a leader. The movie begins with Tess working as a secretary at her office where she works for her boss. She has to get coffee for her boss, write out to-do lists, make copies, and complete any order she is given. When her boss, Katherine, leaves, Tess takes on her roles and tries her hand at what it would be like to be the boss rather than the secretary. Tess eventually becomes a leader when she demands the other employees hear her new ideas for the company. This ends with her being promoted and becoming the boss of her company.
This movie does a great job at showing the differences in job status and moving up in a career field. The office itself shows the differences in hierarchy of the career field. The employees that are at the entry level have offices in the cubicles. The higher position in the field has their own office. The office does not only show the difference in job level, but also how other employees view each other. The employees with their own offices have four walls and a door which separates them from the other employees and makes them seem more closed off and less approachable. However, the cubicles are more open, and the employees that work in these are more social with each other. Sometimes this is seen as a negative thing because they do not get to choose who they socialize with.
Audience members should be able to relate this movie somehow to something in their lives: work, relationships, school, sports or other personal events. I could relate to this movie because when I tried out for cheerleading in high school, I made the junior varsity team and not the varsity team. In order to make varsity the next year, I worked really hard to improve myself before the next tryout. In taking the advice from Working Girl, I know everyone has to start somewhere, which is usually the bottom, and then work hard to eventually move up. The characters in the movie are what brought the story together. The main character, Tess, is very different from her boss, Katherine, in many ways.
At first Tess and Katherine start as complete opposites where Tess is working as a secretary and is in a negative relationship with her boyfriend who cheats on her, and Katherine is the boss, is in what she thinks is a good relationship, and lives in a fancy house. These characters are shown as different by how they live their lives but also by their attitudes. Tess is more driven and focused on her career; she is working really hard to move up in her career field. But Katherine is already at the top of her field which makes her think she no longer has to try, so she steals ideas from others employees who she thinks are beneath her.
Tess is similar to the other characters who work in the office as employees too, such as her best friend, Cynthia. They are similar because they both work in the office and are trying to work up to a higher career status. But, the biggest similarity is between Alice and Tess. Alice is Tess’ secretary when she starts her new job at the end. It is a brief scene, but viewers can see how closely related they are. Both of these girls started out working as secretaries where they were to fetch what their boss wanted or needed done. Alice is basically the shadow of what Tess use to be before she got her new job working as a boss. I like how the writers added in Alice at the end because it brought the movie back in a full circle. It also allowed the audience to see how far Tess has really come throughout the movie it was like Alice was looking into a mirror of Tess’s old self and viewers realize how far she truly came.
As an audience member I thought Working Girl was written well. I really liked how the writers combined comedy and lessons throughout the movie. I enjoyed the comedy throughout the movie; for example, the name that Tess and Jack called Katherine and the way Katherine was painting her toenail even when her foot was in a cast. The lessons throughout the movie were strong as well. The movie showed that we have to work our way up not only in our careers but also in our lives.