Pretty Woman (R)
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This came out in 1990, and I watched it at least once on VHS in the 90s. I'm reviewing it in 2024. Well, this is meant to be a romantic comedy, but I'm listing it under "romantic movies" instead of "rom-coms", because I'm just not capable of seeing it as a comedy. There are some elements that I would call mildly comedic, but mostly I see it as a drama. I'm not sure how romantic I really find it, but at least enough for me to file it under "romantic" instead of, say, "serio-comedy", or something. It's a fairly decent story, with good acting and a good soundtrack. I'm not sure how I feel about its depiction of sex work; it seems to at least partly portray it as being beneath the main character's value, and something to be escaped from, and only engaged in as a last resort. In reality, I don't believe it should be taboo at all. But then again, the main character's best friend doesn't necessarily seem like she feels it's beneath her. I'm not sure if that's meant to be seen as a lack of self-confidence or a belief that there's nothing inherently wrong with her occupation. But overall, I don't think the movie portrays sex work as greatly demeaning for either of them (even if some of the characters see it that way). So I'll let the issue slide.

Anyway, there's this guy named Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) who is in California on business for awhile; at the end of the week he'll be heading back home to New York. Edward is a corporate raider whose company buys struggling companies, then breaks them up and sells the pieces for profit. His current deal involves a shipbuilding company owned by Jim Morse, who is desperate to avoid the takeover. Meanwhile, there's a prostitute named Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts, in her breakout role) who has a roommate named Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo), who got her into the business. One night, Edward is driving in unfamiliar territory, and stops to ask directions from Vivian. She ends up driving him to his destination, because he's unfamiliar with the car, which he had borrowed from his lawyer, Philip Stuckey (Jason Alexander). After arriving at Edward's hotel, Vivian is going to take a bus back home, but instead Edward decides to invite her up to his room for the night. Subsequently, he hires her to be his girlfriend for the week. He gives her money to buy more appropriate clothes, but the salespeople don't want to serve her, so she gets help from the hotel's manager, Barnard Thompson (Hector Elizondo).

Over the course of the week, Edward and Vivian fall in love, though neither wants to admit it. And there's really not much else I can say without getting into spoilers, or just extraneous plot details. (I already feel like my first paragraph about the plot is too detailed.) I basically liked Vivian and Edward as characters, as well as Barnard and Kit (but definitely not Philip). The movie was a big hit when it came out, and I suppose I would say deservedly so. I mean... I liked it. I didn't love it, by any stretch, but I can understand others liking it more than I did, and I do think it deserved to be popular. And I appreciate it making a star of Julia Roberts. Oh, and I do like the line, "She saves him right back."