Pretty Woman (1990) - DVD Review

While trying to find his Beverly Hills hotel, a tycoon corporate raider, Edward Lewis, played by Richard Gere, accidently meets Vivian Ward, a Hollywood prostitute. Vivian Ward, played by Julia Roberts, is hired by Edward Lewis as a date for a whole week.

Julia Roberts portrays Vivian Ward brilliantly as a prostitute suddenly taken into the world of the ultra rich where anything you could desire is just a call away. Normally, she has been able to get just enough clients to survive with her drug-using roommate. Since Vivian does not even have a high school diploma, she chose prostitution as the only higher paying alternative to working in fast food restaurants.

Now, Vivian is staying in a hotel suite that has a bathroom about as big as her whole apartment and an unlimited number of people to wait on her. As a date for Edward Lewis, she is swept up in the snobbish, Hollywood culture on Rodeo Drive. After being asked to leave an exclusive boutique, Vivian is desperate to learn how to dress and eat at a high class restaurant. She finds a sympathetic hotel manager at the Beverly Hills Hotel who has his own boutique manager work with Vivian personally from hair to shoes, giving her a stunning and elegant appearance.

Both Edward Lewis and Vivian Ward come from extreme ends of society and could not be more different. However, they do share one thing in common; they both use their clients in a cold, unemotional manner. But later on, what begins as a business contract quickly evolves into to much, much more.

Richard Gere is very convincing as Edward Lewis, showing a cool, calculating manner, totally involved in winning his business deals. He spends almost all day and night on the phone, planning his next move and meeting with his lawyer, never taking a day off. But that changes when Vivian enters the picture.

Over the week, the poor prostitute escorts the rich industrialist to a client dinner, a polo game, and is flown on his private jet to San Francisco to hear an opera for the first time. As can be expected, there are a few twists and turns when things do not go smoothly at each of these events, causing both Vivian and Edward to reconsider who they are and what they should be doing in their lives.

This movie is a delightful romance that will have you guessing what will happen next with this bizarre mix of these two fascinating people.

Pretty Woman is rated R. Parents need to know that this film contains adult themes, strong sexual references, and sexual imagery.