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A Reel Life film section

Winter 2004

Working Girl (1988) movie review

Attitude is a Girl's Best Friend

Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is a young woman with the wrong hair, the wrong accent, the wrong education and the wrong clothes. In the 1980s world, she's even the wrong gender, but she has the right mind for the job. All she needs is a chance.

Enter Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver), beautiful, well-connected, brilliant and lacking in ethics. She is Tess' new boss and she is about to unwittingly give Tess a lesson in grabbing her big chance.

With Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) an unwitting partner, Tess presents herself as an associate in her firm and embarks on a Kamikaze campaign to make a business deal.

Movie poster, Working Girl; Festivale film review

Movie poster, Working Girl; Festivale film review

For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying.

This is the film that women's magazines used to demonstrate many points about how to make it in the business world. It's a romantic comedy that didn't ignore the realities of the working world and the ways of the people in it. Corporate types are shown in all their glory, conspicuous consumption is shown in all its glory and the machinations of the rich and powerful are set against the world of average joes and average bars.

Ultimately what it takes to succeed in business is to believe in yourself, and to have someone believe in you doesn't hurt either.

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by Ali Kayn
Released 2 March 1989
For credits and official site details, see below
Search Festivale for more work by the film-makers below.

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Just the facts:

Title: Working Girl (1988)
Written by: Kevin Wade
Directed by: Mike Nichols
running time: 113 mins
rating: M


The Players: Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt, Kevin Spacey


Official website:
IMDb entry


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