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Pretty Woman
Pretty Woman is the definition of a chick flick, the plot is so common as to not be worth mentioning, but just in case you haven’t seen any chick flicks, ever, it’s the standard boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. In this case, the boy in question, Edward (Richard Gere), a multimillionaire, inadvertently picks up the girl, Vivian (Julia Roberts), a hooker, while trying to get directions.
In a Pygmalion meets Cinderella story, Vivian, learns how to fit in with the social elite that Edward hangs out with, while saving him from himself. The only way this one manages to get onto the dodgy movie site is by association. If you want to be able to sit down and watch the Die Hard marathon, you’re going to have to earn Brownie points by sitting through movies like this, so you’d better find something in them to appreciate.
In Pretty Woman, finding something to appreciate is fairly easy as Julia Roberts is in most of the scenes. As her character is a hooker, she also wears some interesting outfits, at least until Edward (Richard Gere) takes her shopping and ruins the view. But at that point, your imagination can fill in what’s been covered up, unless you have a real goldfish memory.
Dodginess
This one is not dodgy at all, at least by the traditional standards of dodginess. Of course, chick flicks are a separate class of dodgy films, i.e. dodgy films for woman, but there’s no Stay Puft Marshmallow Scale for that. Pretty Woman manages a massive 1 on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man scale. While there aren’t any true dodgy moments, there is a great scene when Julia Roberts, carrying massive amounts of shopping, goes back into the store to find the sales lady that snubbed her and rub her face in the commission she just lost. I know I’ve wanted to do that to some salespeople.
Rewatchability Rating
If you are involved in any kind of serious relationship, chances are good that you will be watching this on more than one occasion. That isn’t too big a hardship as it doesn’t require a whole lot of concentration and does have its amusing moments. Overall, Pretty Woman rates a 3 on the rewatchability index.
Most Memorable Quote
Cynical humour abounds in Pretty Woman, with much commentary on the behaviour of the so-called elite and the rampant consumerism, present in the script writing. The line that exemplifies this is “Stores aren’t nice to people, they’re nice to credit cards”, and while that is a great quote, it’s not the best one in the film. That occurs early on when Richard Gere is asking Julia Roberts about her being a hooker and she responds with “Not only am I better in the sack than an amateur, I’m probably safer.” Picture that line on a business card.
Final Thoughts
Pretty Woman is watchable, and if you want to have free reign on watching Bruce Willis yell “Yippee-Ki-Yay”, suggest watching this one and you’ll earn most of brownie points you’ll need for a long time.