Working by the hour
Vivian is a streetwalker who is down on her luck. She barely has anything, but continues to push on. Edward is a millionaire businessman, who is ruthless as hell. He wants for nothing, but seems to be missing something. When he gets lost in Los Angeles, he picks up Vivian and pays her for directions. Intrigued by her openness, and happy demeanor, he hires Vivian for the night. After a very lovely evening with her, he needs a date for the week while he’s in town, so he hires her for the week. Soon, her dream life comes alive and his missing piece in his life begins to fill up.
I can’t remember the original title of this move, but it certainly wasn’t as inspiring as Pretty Woman. Regardless, the story of a prostitute falling in love, which is essentially what it becomes, could not have been sold without some solid acting involved. This movie launched the career of Julia Roberts. She not only sold the idea of a prostitute and of a truly charming person, but also sold the idea that she made it work. Her second fiddle act to Richard Gere (who I really like as an actor) wasn’t played long as she completely took this role of Vivian and convincingly owned it. Her transformation from prostitute to princess was subtle for a two-hour film. That’s what is so amazing about her as an actress. When you begin the movie you see a more playful Vivian, but by the time the movie ends she is very much matured into a beautiful young lady (a pretty woman if you will). Of course, this transformation didn’t come easy, Richard Gere’s Edward Lewis had a lot to do with that. As he’s teaching her to spit out the streetwalker in her (no pun intended), she’s teaching him to loosen up. Both characters cleverly feed off each (no pun intended) and they grow to a middle ground where both are equally happy and content.
The movie has little to no flaws in it, as it was brilliant in 1990 and it’s just as brilliant now. There might have been an issue if the role of Vivian had been cast completely wrong. This movie had to be a tough sell, but it was easy to the success of it after watching Julia Roberts completely engulf herself in the role. I’m not a huge Julia Roberts fan either, I’m just thoroughly impressed by her in this film.
Blu…. I’m not going to use that for this movie
The transfer from film to HD was brilliant. The colors and style of L.A. shine through in this film. Some films benefit the transfer from film to HD more than others, but it mainly depends on the film quality and the lighting. This one scores with flying colors, and you should pay attention to the piano scene specifically as the contrast of blacks/whites certainly makes the scene shine in high-definition. As for the audio, the soundtrack is one of the best of all-time (for love stories) and it sounds really good coming in at 5.1 Uncompressed.
As for the features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– Blooper Reel – Hilarious! Enjoy that one.
– LA: The Pretty Woman Tour – Interesting, not my favorite, but interesting.
– 1990 Production Featurette – Dated a bit, but still entertaining.
– Wild Women Do performed by Natalie Cole
-Feature Audio Commentary by director Garry Marshall – He’s always a pleasure to hear from. He’s entertaining and provides solid insight to the filmmaking that went into this movie.
– Theatrical Trailer