Working Girl

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Working Girl

Working Girl movie poster
Directed by Mike Nichols
Produced by Douglas Wick
Written by Kevin Wade
Starring Harrison Ford
Sigourney Weaver
Melanie Griffith
Alec Baldwin
Joan Cusack
Music by Carly Simon (Main song)
Rob Mounsey
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) December 21, 1988
Running time 115 min.
Language English
Budget $28.6 million
IMDb profile

Working Girl is an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture and an Academy Award winner for Best Song ("Let the River Run" by Carly Simon), which tells the story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill, working in the mergers & acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank. When her boss, Katharine Parker, breaks her leg, Tess poses as Katharine in order to put forward her own bank deal ideas.

The movie was written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It features a dramatic opening sequence following 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 Song.

Contents

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Plot summary

Tess McGill is a hard working young woman who is determined to succeed on Wall Street. As she turns 30 she finds herself unable to move beyond her role as a secretary. Her luck initially appears to change when she begins to work for Katharine Parker. Tess soon discovers, however, that Katharine is planning to pitch one of Tess' ideas and claim it as her own. When Katherine breaks her leg abroad, Tess takes the matter into her own hands, teaming up with Jack Trainer (not knowing that Jack is Katharine's boyfriend) and chaos ensues.

Tagline: For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying.

[edit] Awards

The cover of the DVD release of the movie.
Enlarge
The cover of the DVD release of the movie.

Winner:

Academy Award Nominations:

[edit] Trivia

  • The movie is David Duchovny's screen debut. He appears in two scenes; once at Tess's birthday party at her apartment and later at Cyn's pre-wedding party.
  • The lobby of Tess's office building was that of the now-destroyed 7 World Trade Center. The scenes of Tess's secretarial pool and Katharine Parker's office were filmed at 1 State Street Plaza at the corner of Whitehall and State Street. [1] [2]
  • Many scenes were shot in the New Brighton section of Staten Island in New York City.
  • When Tess goes to meet Katherine Parker on the helipad, she is carrying a stuffed gorilla, a direct reference to the film Gorillas in the Mist, a film that Weaver had finished a few months earlier.
  • In September, 2006. Singer and actress Jessica Simpson confirmed that she would play the role of Tess McGill on a remake of "Working Girl" entitled "Blonde Ambition". [3]

[edit] TV series

Working Girl was also made into a short-lived NBC television series in 1990, starring Sandra Bullock as Tess McGill. It only lasted 12 episodes.

[edit] External links

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