Picks and Pans Review: Working Girl

UPDATED 12/19/1988 at 01:00 AM EST Originally published 12/19/1988 at 01:00 AM EST

Mixing jobs and sex may be bad for business, but it can be classic comedy. Remember Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday? Director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Kevin Wade fall short of that high standard, but their class-act cast is so game you'll probably be laughing too hard to notice. Melanie Griffith—every movie should have one—is irresistibly sexy and fun as an ambitious (she attends night school) secretary at a Manhattan brokerage firm. Griffith's fashion-plate boss, played with chic bitchiness by Sigourney Weaver, pretends to be her mentor. Instead, Weaver steals Griffith's ideas and pitches them to handsome broker Harrison Ford. When Weaver breaks a leg skiing, the angry Griffith swears to get even. Aided by her Staten Island sidekick, played with gum-chewing snap by Joan (Broadcast News) Cusack, Griffith takes over Weaver's office and wardrobe. She convinces Ford she's the boss, while he tries to convince her into the sack. Oddly, Ford and Griffith fail to ignite enough romantic sparks. So much for the debit column. On the credit side, note that Working Girl is a frisky farce, brimming with style, wit and high spirits. And oh, yes. Give the saucy Ms. Griffith a key to the executive washroom. She's a winner. (R)

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