More than just your standard Hollywood rom-com, but undoubtedly an event beyond comprehension when the film opened in the Spring of 1990 in the US and UK.
Julia Roberts had established herself as a competent actress with her turns in the comedy drama MYSTIC PIZZA (1988) and the screen adaptation of STEEL MAGNOLIAS (1989), for which she got an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress.
She went one better, as well as evolving into the highest-paid actress at that time in this update of PYGMALION / MY FAIR LADY as the hooker with a heart of gold, Vivian Ward who lives in a downtrodden apartment near Hollywood Boulevard with mentor and friend Kit De Luca (Laura San Giacomo)
Meanwhile, billionaire businessman Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) has just kissed his latest girlfriend Jessica goodbye in a phone call during a major business week in which he intends to look after Morse Industries, run by lifelong owner James Morse (Ralph Bellamy, TRADING PLACES).
Unable to get the limo out of parking at the event, Edward borrows the Lotus of his lawyer Philip Stuckey (Jason Alexander) and gets lost in downtown Hollywood, where Vivian turns tricks on him for $20 and guides him to his room at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel, whilst showing him how to drive the car properly, having learned a lot about cars in her home town of Georgia.
At the hotel, Vivian happily takes the $20 and is on her way home by bus, when Edward decides to invite her into the hotel. Staying overnight, Edward proposes that she work with him for seven days whilst in town for business, citing that he ‘doesn’t want any emotional attachments’.
Asking her to buy clothes, she heads out but falls foul of the snobbery in Rodeo Drive, but Edward decides to help her….
Without question one of the all-time great comedies and a movie that was sheer creative magic, thanks in no part to the evident chemistry between Gere and Roberts (Gere was also making positive waves in a comeback with the police thriller INTERNAL AFFAIRS (directed by Mike Figgis, LEAVING LAS VEGAS) and a movie of change and transformation (the shopping sequence is one of the all-time great montages to the tune of OH, PRETTY WOMAN by Roy Orbison)
The original script, titled 3000 and written by JF Lawton (who also scripted UNDER SIEGE) was a much darker affair until it was reworked for a more upbeat version at the blockbusting status it is now. I think it works well. San Giacomo (SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, Steven Soderbergh’s debut knockout film) also adds some excellent support.