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Working Girl
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Metascore
73 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 9 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver
  • Summary: Ambitious secretary Tess McGill (Griffith) makes her up the corporate ladder with a little creative deception by "taking over" when her boss Katherine Parker (Weaver) breaks her leg on a ski trip.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    100
    One of those entertainments where you laugh a lot along the way, and then you end up on the edge of your seat at the end.
  2. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    60
    A subplot involving Griffith and first boyfriend Alec Baldwin becomes the-subplot-that-wouldn't-go-bust, and comic scenes sometimes go bankrupt because they just hold their stock too long. Light entertainment like this should zip along like those financial quote boards.
  3. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: Pauline Kael
    30
    Nichols must have a cummerbund around his head: the directing is constricted – there's no visual inventiveness or spontaneity. And in his hands the script has no conviction. [9 Jan 1989]
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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. lasttimeisaw
    7
    However outdated the costumes and settings, outmoded the corporal cooperation business, I believe the ethic of WORKING GIRL is abiding, at least until this moment (24 years later), resembling a 1980s version of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006), however collected 6 Oscar nominations with 1 win (for Carly Simon’s theme song LET THE RIVER RUN) at its time (including the weighty BEST PICTURE, BEST DIRECTOR and 3 acting nominations), we may hark back to the oldie saying “Miracle happens!”. I watched the film twice in a row, and its sensational effect of its initial release may have been bleached by an eon 24 years of our generation, but I appreciate the film in conspiring an ingenious plot of this crowd-pleasing dramedy, Melanie Griffith’s role effectively resonates with a widely broad working class not only in 1988 but also nowadays (white collar office suit probably). The cast is excellent as well, many complain Griffith’s deficiency in stretch as an actress, but Mike Nichols surely helped her to dig into a full blown, a hardball hidden inside her feeble flesh (the nude or underwear scenes are just expendable bravura though). Billed as a comedy, which admittedly is not Griffiths-Ford pair’s strong suit, Weaver and Cusack bulges out for the rescue, both I adore so much in the film (Weaver was a double nominee that year, and I think it deserves my win at least in the supporting category, haven’t seen GORILLAS IN THE MIST 1988 yet). WORKING GIRL is clearly not the BEST PICTURE material gauged by the current Oscar barometer (Mike Nichols’ big name helped then, which failed to push CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR to fetch the coronet 20 years later), but it is a strong contender to be memorized as a film to remind us how the fashion alters in our fast food world (haircut, clothes, architecture, etc.), USA particularly.… Expand
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