Working Girl (1988)

Ah, the late '80s. I never know whether to write '80s as Eighties, eighties, 80s, 1980s, or what, so I just keep changing it for my various reviews. One day I'll settle on something. I'm going to go for '80s today. Tomorrow I might go for 80's just to annoy the grammar police, and myself. Anyway, the late '80's - the era of big hair (or very big hair according to today's film), shoulder pads, and the American dream being to climb the corporate ladder. If only they knew it would lead to future people sitting behind computer screens on Microsoft Teams spluttering phrases like, "You're on mute," and "Can you see my screen?" Yep, they might have had a dreamed a different dream then.

Working Girl is about Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), a secretary who has got her degree in business at night school, and wants to join the upper echelons of corporate. She has big ideas, but just needs a way to get them into the ears of those that matter. Holding her back are her boyfriend with no real aspirations, and her male colleagues, who see her as a bit of skirt. Initially it seems that she might get her chance to show her potential. Her boss sets up a meeting with a business client. Unfortunately that client happens played by Kevin Spacey who, as we discover, is a little iffy. Yes, that probably applies to both the character and the actor playing him. Tess makes it clear that she's not that kind of working girl, showers Spacey in champagne, gives her boss a piece of her mind for setting up the meeting, and finds herself reassigned to the mergers and acquisitions department as secretary to Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver).

Katharine Parker is a Girlboss before they were even invented. She spouts out inspirational lines like "I want your input. I welcome ideas. I like to see hard work rewarded. It's a two-way street on my team." and "you know you don't get anywhere in this world by waiting for what you want to come to you. You make it happen." For Tess, she seems perfect. If there's anybody you're going to want to think outside the box for, or go the extra mile, or shoot for the moon, or synergise with, it's Katharine Parker. Unfortunately, Parker is only in it for herself. The business world of the eighties is dog-eat-dog. Tess comes up with a great idea. The company want to buy a broadcasting company so they can get into television. But as anybody who knows anything about breaking into television knows, apparently it's not easy. Tess comes up with a fantastic idea. Why not buy a radio network first? Yep, proper GCSE Business Studies thinking there. Tess pitches the idea to Katharine, Katharine tells her it's a stupid idea. Tess then discovers that her boyfriend is sleeping with Doreen (whoever Doreen is). Katharine goes off on a skiing trip to Germany, but breaks her leg there. In her absence, Tess has to housesit for Katharine. While snooping around Katharine's house, Tess hears a message on Katharine's voice recorder, and spots an email on her computer. At least I think it's email. It's a message typed from Katharine to somebody else. Was email even a thing in 1988? Anyway, regardless of whatever magical method words found their way to people via computers back then, it seems that Katharine has only gone and claimed Tess' idea and made it her own. Tess is having none of it.