Julia Roberts and Richard Gere star in this 1990 classic romantic comedy.  Jason Alexander, Hector Elizondo and Laura San Giacomo also star.  Garry Marshall directs.

 

Gere plays Edward Lewis, a corporate raider who's all business.  He's in L.A. for a week to complete his takeover of a ship building company.  The movie opens with Lewis at a party at his lawyer's (Alexander) house.  His girlfriend in New York dumps him over the phone.  Lewis then takes the lawyer's Lotus and starts driving to his hotel in Beverly Hills.  But, Lewis doesn't know how to drive very well.  He also doesn't know where he's going.  He ends up stalling the car on Hollywood Boulevard, where a hooker named Vivian (Roberts) talks her way into his car.

 

They end up in his penthouse hotel suite, and Lewis asks Vivian to spend the week with him so he can take her to business dinners and such.  Why does he do this?  Because he sees her flossing her teeth and that surprises him.  It starts out as a business proposition but, of course, becomes much more.

 

Overall review:  ***  The plot leaves a little bit to be desired, but the dialogue is good and the movie comes full circle as things that characters say early on are thrown back at them later.  The supporting cast is good and, for better or worse, Roberts and Gere found the roles that defined their careers.

 

If I have a problem with this movie I guess it's that there's a current of "ickiness" - for lack of a better word - that bubbles throughout the movie.  We're never allowed to forget that Vivian is, after all, a prostitute, albeit a prostitute who's very pretty.