Film: Working Girl (1988)
Screenwriter: Kevin Wade
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Starring: Joan Cusack, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford
Dear Joan Cusack, from Working Girl Fame,
I don’t know how I feel about this movie Working Girl, Joan. It is okay and it is interesting, and your hair is so cool in it. Your hair is big, and your make-up is big, and you wear these great earrings and you have this real Staten Island accent. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Kevin Wade, who wrote the screenplay, was super influenced by the 1983 film Flashdance, in creating his script. There are scenes in Flashdance where Alex, the main character (played by Jennifer Beals), is walking around town with her friend, Jeannie (played by Sunny Johnson), in Pittsburgh. I feel that cinematic reference when I watch you as Cyn walking next to Melanie Griffith. But maybe it feels different because Flashdance is a Pennsylvania movie and Working Girl is all deep New York.
I have two main issues with Working Girl, currently, as it stands now.
First, I think you should get a central part in a movie where you are the one who gets to overcome challenges and be seen and heard, Joan Cusack. I just think it would be fun to watch you as a main character, a heroine, instead of always being the friend or the supportive person. It’s not quite fair to you. I think you could be central in a super-interesting film, don’t you think?
Second, your friend in this movie, Tess (played by Melanie Griffith), is not really ethical. She seems sweet and vulnerable, and she has that soft voice and skinny legs. And she wants to “make it.” But she lies and connives, and so does everyone else around her, and I just don’t think it’s a win in the end, if you lie and connive to get there.
I know that people in positions of power can set a certain tone, and those underneath can see the game that’s being played, and adopt the game for their own interests. That’s what Tess does in Working Girl. She does stuff she really shouldn’t do to her nice boss, Katharine (played by Sigourney Weaver), because she sees that her boss isn’t telling her the truth. But is that an excuse for her own behavior? What is the best way to get ahead, if she knows she has the intelligence to do the same job as the boss—even better?
If Tess plays by the rules, she feels that she will stay in a secretarial role forever. If she “utilizes an opportunity available to her,” she can show off her skills. She is entrepreneurial, creative, thinking outside the box, in order to demonstrate her prowess and benefit the corporation she works for. At the same time, she witnesses and is part of a scheme where she represents herself as different than she actually is.
Cyn—played by you, Ms. Joan Cusack!—tries to talk some sense into Tess. Cyn is a friend—a true friend. A true friend is a wealth beyond measure, isn’t it? Cyn tries to warn Tess about some of the dark roads she’s going down, and what consequences may unfold. She warns Tess about being false and fake, and getting caught in this big lie she’s telling. In one of my favorite scenes, Cyn tells Tess, “I dance around my living room and sing, but that doesn’t make me Madonna.”
Cyn is essentially saying, “You’re not the boss, and you need to stop lying to get where you want to be.”
Tess, however, trusts herself and her vision, and her goals. She listens to herself the way we often see men listening to their instincts and judgement in film. In fact, I suspect that the screenwriter of Working Girl took a story about a man trying to rise through the ranks in a corporation, and just altered it enough to make it “hotter,” with Melanie Griffith in lingerie. (I could be wrong. I always leave room for the fact that I might be wrong.)
While Tess does have some knightly men come to her rescue, and support her, and switch sides for her to get her a job at a new company, the how of Tess’s success matters, don’t you think?
Did she get there ethically? Would Jack Trainer (played by Harrison Ford) have stood by her if he wasn’t romantically involved with her? Without Jack, Tess couldn’t have moved up the ranks. And Jack may be partial to Tess because he is in love with her. Do you agree?
What I see in this film is an absence of sisterhood in the workplace, and that bothers me. I also see it in life. There are so many politics in the country and the world, and these threads of narratives get created about who is winning and who is losing, and the truth can get lost in the game of it all. What does any game matter if there is not a firm grounding of trust and love, ethics and integrity?
It is true that we have a society that largely looks to external labels to define who people are. While we may give external labels some credit, it is our actions and our energy that determines who we end up with, and where we end up. We have to examine the steps we take to get to where we want to go, and why we take those steps.
I would have preferred that Tess and her boss Katharine were friends, and as a boss with experience and prowess, Katharine lifted Tess up and opened doors for her, so that Tess could also succeed. That is what good bosses do, in my opinion—if they see someone performing well.
Instead, Tess sees Katharine lie, and she lies, too.
At least Tess has a friend in Cyn, and even when Cyn disagrees with her—and communicates this disagreement—Cyn still shows up for Tess, cheering for Tess, listening to Tess, being patient, kind, and loving. That’s what friends do.
This movie, Working Girl, is weird, in my opinion, because it is all a mirage and a bunch of ideas about the workplace, manufactured to seem like it is elevating women in the workplace—and their acumen, and their abilities—while just plugging in cliches about women and office work culture that are tired, boring, and materialistic. And the filmmakers unnecessarily put Melanie Griffith in lingerie in a few scenes so the men will come to the theater, too. Ugh.
The best things about this movie, Joan, are how cute Harrison Ford is, and the bigness of your hair, and the colorfulness of your make-up. If I had to choose between Harrison Ford’s cute face, and your hair and make-up, you would always win.
I just want you to know what I think, because I think my opinion is a good, working woman’s opinion on this cinematic tete-a-tete I got going on here.
Love and hugs, and happy Mother’s Day,
Ms. Wonderful
Next week, Ms. Cool and Ms. Wonderful will have a videocast for Working Girl on Rose Woods TV. Subscribe in advance.
In the meantime, you can listen to the archives of the Ms. Wonderful Film Club blog. This recently recorded podcast episode is about femininity and masculinity in the movie Flashdance. Subscribe to the Ms. Wonderful Film Club podcast on Spotify or Apple.
Your Saturday Vinyl Playlist, May 10th, for Working Girl.
