Product Code Database
Working Girl is a 1988 American romance film comedy drama film directed by Mike Nichols, written by Kevin Wade, and starring Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver, and Melanie Griffith. Its plot follows an ambitious secretary from Staten Island working in mergers and acquisitions. The secretary, who has been going to business night school, pitches a profitable idea, only to have her new boss attempt to take credit. When her boss is laid up with a broken leg, she secretly takes over her boss's role to prove her capabilities in the corporate world.
The film's opening sequence follows Manhattan-bound commuters on the Staten Island Ferry accompanied by Carly Simon's song "Let the River Run", for which she received the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television, making her the first artist to win this trio of awards for a song composed and written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist. The film was met with critical acclaim, and was a major box office success, grossing a worldwide total of $103 million.
Working Girl was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress for Griffith, while both Weaver and Joan Cusack were nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film won four Golden Globes (from six nominations), including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Musical or Comedy for Griffith, and Best Supporting Actress for Weaver. It also received three BAFTA nominations: Best Actress for Griffith, Best Supporting Actress for Weaver, and Best Original Score for Simon.
Shortly thereafter, Tess lands another job, this time as an administrative assistant to Katharine Parker, an associate partner at the mergers-and-acquisitions firm Petty Marsh. At first, Katharine seems supportive of Tess, encouraging her to share ideas. Eventually, however, she insists that Tess's proposed purchase of a radio network by Trask Industries would not work out.
When Katharine breaks her leg skiing, she asks Tess to house-sit. While there, Tess discovers meeting notes which reveal Katharine's intention to pass off the Trask Industries idea as her own. Returning home, Tess finds her live-in boyfriend having sex with another woman. Tess dumps him. With Katharine still in the hospital, Tess uses her boss's connections and clothes to ramrod the Trask proposal. With help from her friend Cyn, Tess gives herself a makeover, borrowing Katharine's stylish clothes to look more professional.
Tess schedules a meeting with Jack Trainer, a mergers-and-acquisitions associate from another company. The night before the meeting, she attends (on Katharine's behalf) a dinner hosted by Trainer's firm. Trainer is attracted to Tess, and approaches her at the bar. Yet Jack does not reveal his name, even after she asks directly whether he knows the man she's slated to meet with (himself). Trainer brings Tess to his apartment, after she passes out in a cab from a combination of Valium and alcohol.
Tess leaves early the next day, believing that they slept together. Arriving for her meeting with Trainer and his associates, she is surprised to recognize him from the previous night. They both feign non-recognition. After the meeting, Tess worries that her deal has failed, until Jack arrives at Tess's office. He assures her that they did not sleep together, and that he wants to move forward with her idea. Together, they prepare the financials for her merger proposal, which they present successfully to Trask. Tess and Jack celebrate by giving in to their attraction, and ending up in bed. Thereafter, Tess discovers that Jack has been involved with Katharine, but was planning to break up with her when she went skiing and got injured.
Katharine returns home on the day of the merger meeting. While Tess is helping her get settled, Katharine brings up the Trask merger, claiming she was intent on taking it to Jack, and on eventually giving Tess credit for it. Katharine adds that Jack's strict ethical code has prevented him from looking at another's ideas without verifying the source, ever since he was accused of stealing himself. Jack arrives in response to a call from Katharine, who unsuccessfully tries to seduce him. Tess avoids running into Jack at Katharine's apartment, but accidentally leaves her notebook there before she departs for the meeting. Katharine discovers Tess's deception by finding the notebook, which includes Jack's phone numbers and the scheduled merger meeting.
At the meeting, Tess brings up what Katharine told her about Jack's ethical code, and about his being accused of stealing. Jack insists that it was all a lie. Then Katharine crashes the meeting and outs Tess as her secretary. She accuses Tess of stealing the Trask merger idea. Unable to defend herself, Tess apologizes profusely and leaves.
Tess returns to Petty Marsh a day later, intent on cleaning out her desk. Instead she encounters Jack, Katharine, Trask, and members of Trask's board. Jack sticks up for Tess, who points out a news item which presents a possible risk to the merger's success. In an elevator pitch she explains to Trask what inspired her plan for his radio acquisition. Trask confronts Katharine, who, when she is unable to explain where Tess's plan came from, is fired.
Tess lands an entry-level job with Trask Industries. She also moves in with Jack. On her first day at Trask, Tess meets a colleague named Alice, whom she takes for her new supervisor. Alice explains that she is actually Tess's secretary. Tess makes it very clear that she considers Alice a colleague, thus proving herself very different from Katharine. At the first opportunity, Tess calls Cyn from her new office and tells her that she has made it.
Following the casting of Sigourney Weaver and Harrison Ford—both major stars at that point—the studio agreed to cast Griffith, as they felt Weaver and Ford's involvement gave them a higher chance of box-office success.
Throughout the shoot, Griffith was in the midst of struggling with a years-long alcohol and cocaine addiction, which at times interfered with the shoot. "There were a lot of things that happened on Working Girl that I did that were not right," Griffith recalled in 2019. "It was the late '80s. There was a lot going on party-wise in New York. There was a lot of cocaine. There was a lot of temptation." After Nichols realized that Griffith had arrived on set high on cocaine, the shoot was temporarily shut down for 24 hours. Griffith elaborated on the experience:
Three weeks after filming was completed, Griffith entered a rehabilitation facility to receive treatment for her addiction. Ironically, according to the biography Mike Nichols: A Life, written by Mark Harris, Nichols had been battling a cocaine addiction of his own around the same time.
The film's additional soundtrack was scored by Simon and Rob Mounsey. The soundtrack album was released by Arista Records on August 29, 1989, and peaked at No. 45 on the Billboard 200.
Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "The plot of Working Girl is put together like clockwork. It carries you along while you're watching it, but reconstruct it later and you'll see the craftsmanship". In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley described Melanie Griffith as "luminous as Marilyn Monroe, as adorable as one of Disney's singing mice. She clearly has the stuff of a megastar, and the movie glows from her". Janet Maslin, in her review for The New York Times, wrote, "Mike Nichols, who directed Working Girl, also displays an uncharacteristically blunt touch, and in its later stages the story remains lively but seldom has the perceptiveness or acuity of Mr. Nichols's best work". In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "Kevin Wade shows this in his smart screenplay, which is full of the atmospheric pressures that allow stars to collide. Director Mike Nichols knows this in his bones. He encourages Weaver to play (brilliantly) an airy shrew. He gives Ford a boyish buoyancy and Griffith the chance to be a grownup mesmerizer".
The February 2020 issue of New York Magazine lists Working Girl as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars."
Plot
Tess McGill is a working-class woman from Staten Island who dreams of climbing the Career ladder to an executive position. Having earned a business degree via night school, she works as a secretary at a Stockbroker in lower Manhattan. There, Tess's boss and male co-workers treat her like a bimbo, despite benefiting from her intelligence and business instincts. After one humiliation too many from her scornful boss (he fixes her up with a rival executive, who only wants to do cocaine and have sex), Tess retaliates by posting on a VDT what she thinks of him and of what he's done. This greatly amuses Tess's colleagues, but also gets her fired.
Cast
Production
Development
Screenwriter Kevin Wade was inspired to write the screenplay after visiting New York City in 1984 and witnessing throngs of career women walking through the streets in tennis shoes while carrying their high-heels.
Casting
Melanie Griffith read the screenplay for Working Girl over a year before the production began, and expressed interest in playing the role of Tess McGill. Approximately a year later, Mike Nichols agreed to direct the film after reading the screenplay while shooting his film Biloxi Blues in Arkansas. Following Nichols's attachment, Griffith had a formal audition for the role. Molly Ringwald auditioned but was deemed "too young." Molly Ringwald Felt Limited by ‘Brat Pack’ Label, But ‘The Bear’ and ‘Feud’ Roles Excite Her for What’s Next Nichols was so determined for Griffith to have the part that he threatened to drop out of the production if the studio, 20th Century Fox, would not hire her.
Filming
Principal photography of Working Girl began on February 16, 1988, in New York City. Many scenes were shot in the New Brighton section of Staten Island in New York City. One half-day of shooting to complete the skiing accident scene took place in New Jersey. Four different buildings portrayed the offices of Petty Marsh—1 State Street Plaza; the Midday Club, which served as the company's club room; the lobby of 7 World Trade Center (one of the buildings destroyed in the September 11 attacks); and the reading floor of the L. F. Rothschild Building. One Chase Manhattan Plaza was featured at the end of the film as the Trask Industries building. Filming completed on April 27, 1988, with the final sequence being shot on the Staten Island Ferry.
Music
The film's main theme "Let the River Run" was written, arranged, and performed by American singer-songwriter Carly Simon, and won her an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Grammy Award for Best Original Song, making Simon the first artist to win this trio of awards for a song written, as well as performed, entirely by a single artist. As a single, "Let the River Run" reached No. 49 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and No. 11 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in early 1989.
Release
Box office
The film was released in the United States and Canada on December 21, 1988, in 601 theaters before expanding to 608 theaters on Friday, December 23; 1,046 theaters on Christmas Day; and 1,051 on Monday, December 26. It grossed $4.7 million in its opening four-day weekend and $5.6 million in its first 6 days. It went on to gross $63.8 million in the United States and Canada and $39.2 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $103 million.
Home media
Working Girl was released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1989 by CBS/Fox Video; "Family Portrait", one of the shorts from The Tracey Ullman Show featuring The Simpsons, was included before the movie on the VHS release. The film was released on DVD on April 17, 2001, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Special features included two theatrical trailers and three TV spots. The film was released on Blu-ray on January 6, 2015. The special features from the DVD release were carried over for the Blu-ray release.
Reception
Critical response
Working Girl received critical acclaim upon release. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
Accolades
Academy Awards Best Picture Douglas Wick Best Director Mike Nichols Best Actress Melanie Griffith Best Supporting Actress Joan Cusack Sigourney Weaver Best Original Song "Let the River Run"
Music and Lyrics by Carly Simon American Comedy Awards Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role) Melanie Griffith Funniest Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Joan Cusack Artios Awards Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film Casting – Comedy Juliet Taylor Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actress Melanie Griffith Best Supporting Actress Joan Cusack British Academy Film Awards Best Actress in a Leading Role Melanie Griffith Best Actress in a Supporting Role Sigourney Weaver Best Original Film Score Carly Simon Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Best Supporting Actress Sigourney Weaver Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Mike Nichols Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy Melanie Griffith Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Sigourney Weaver Best Director – Motion Picture Mike Nichols Best Screenplay – Motion Picture Kevin Wade Best Original Song – Motion Picture "Let the River Run"
Music and Lyrics by Carly Simon Grammy Awards Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Actress Melanie Griffith New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Actress Writers Guild of America Awards Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen Kevin Wade
Honors
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
In other media
Television
Working Girl was also made into a short-lived NBC television series in 1990, starring Sandra Bullock as Tess McGill. It lasted 12 episodes.
Theatre
A Broadway musical version was in the works as of 2017, with a score to be written by Cyndi Lauper from Fox Stage Productions and Aged in Wood Productions. For Aged in Wood, the producers were Robyn Goodman and Josh Fiedler. Instead of a production company on Working Girl, the musical adaptation was switched to a license production by Aged in Wood Productions since Disney took over ownership of Fox Stage in 2019. The show premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in November 2025.
Reboot
In 2022 a reboot of Working Girl was reported to be in development at Hulu, with Ilana Peña adapting the script. Selena Gomez was in talks to produce.
Sources
(2026). 9781250112866, Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 9781250112866
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Working Girl at AllMovie
Categories: 1988 Films, 1988 Comedy-drama Films, 1988 Romantic Comedy Films, 1988 Romantic Drama Films, 1988 American Films, 1980s Business Films, 1988 English-language Films, 1980s Feminist Films, 1980s Romantic Comedy-drama Films, 1980s Screwball Comedy Films, 20th Century Fox Films, American Business Films, American Feminist Comedy Films, American Romantic Comedy-drama Films, American Screwball Comedy Films, Best Musical Or Comedy Picture Golden Globe Winners, English-language Romantic Comedy-drama Films, Films About Businesspeople, Films About Social Class, Films Adapted Into Television Shows, Films Directed By Mike Nichols, Films Produced By Douglas Wick, Films Set In Offices, Films Set In New York City, Films Shot In New Jersey, Films Shot In New York City, Films That Won The Best Original Song Academy Award, Films With Screenplays By Kevin Wade, Workplace Comedy Films, Works About Women In New York City
|
|
