The film that made Julia Roberts into the Hollywood megastar that the world now knows her as. Pretty Woman is a staple in the romantic comedy drama, largely seen as a touch stone to the films of the same genre that followed it, and considered by many critics to be one of the most successful (both critically and financial) and important films of the genre. But to me, the film takes on an entirely different level of depth that is largely left untouched by other films of the rom-com persuasion. Pretty woman is crazy dark underneath the beautiful surroundings, the upbeat cross-over late 80's/early 90's soundtrack and the combination of the insane attractiveness of both Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.
Incidentally, Pretty Woman was in fact originally intended to be a dark tale about prostitution (whilst still utilising the L.A setting of the finished film). The original script included the idea that Vivian would be addicted to drugs and that at one point she is confronted outside a club by a drug dealer, prompting Edward and Darryl to come to her rescue. It is also mentioned in the original screenplay that she needed money to "get to Disneyland" so her deal with Richard was that she would stay off drugs for a week in order to get the money. The film was intended to end with her and a prostitute friend on the bus to Disneyland. The character traits including drug addiction were moved from Robert's character onto "Kit", Vivian's friend.
Many actresses tried out for the leading role during the screenplays early stages, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Daryl Hannah, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Molly Ringwald and Jennifer Connelly. Disney were not overly enthusiastic about the idea of Julia Roberts getting the role (which seems so ridiculous now looking back, considering after this film Julia basically ruled the box office for the 1990's, got an Oscar 10 years later & is still hugely successful to this day).
SO ANYWAY, down to what I actually wanted to say with this post. Pretty Woman kicks off, King of Wishful Thinking plays in the credits and all is well. We're introduced to Gere's character in a fairly lighthearted scene involving his ex wife. He borrows his associates car due to his limo being blocked in, and thus the chain of events that make up the rest of "Pretty Woman" begin to roll into motion.
It's not until we meet Vivian that (in my opinion) things start to get REALLY dark. Barely five minutes into the film and we see a landlord-evading Julia Roberts donning a blonde wig walking down Hollywood Boulevard at night. Her pace is slowed down by a scene involving police and onlookers. And what's the situation? Oh nothing, JUST A DEAD WOMAN. The body prostitute who worked the same street as Vivian is being removed from a dumpster whilst tourists from Orlando stand by taking pictures. The incidents in this scene are never mentioned again throughout the film, and are very likely remnants from the original "darker" screenplay that have been left in (I am intrigued to know what the original screenplay would have been like had it made it to the screen). If you look on the wikipedia page for the film, this entire segment of the opening scenes isn't even mentioned. This is the film that is a staple in Valentines day displays, grouped in with more light hearted fare such as When Harry Met Sally, Annie Hall, Love Actually & Sleepless in Seattle (which granted is another kinda dark film, but thats another blog post for another day) which is a testament to the level of denial that has been applied to the darker parts of Pretty Woman.
We then see Kit, the friend that took Vivian in and introduced her to prostitution. We are introduced to Kit in a confrontational scene between her and Vivian, in which Vivian has found their rent money to be missing. It conspires that Kit has spent the money on drugs. The guy that provided her with the drugs informs Vivian that they intact owe him another $200 and that Vivian could possibly repay him with sexual favours (as I said, DARK AS FUCK).
Kit and Vivian are seen as being so financially troubled that Kit relies on the fruit used to garnish drinks at the bar as her source of food. Pretty shortly after this, Richard Gere shows up on his metaphorical white horse and gallops away with Vivian into the sunset. Sort of.
Vivian has a Cinderella-esque transformation and all her problems are solved forever right? WRONGO. Upon discovering that Vivian is in fact a prostitute, Philip (a lawyer who is seen working with Edward throughout the film) attempts to force himself on Vivian in a seriously twisted revenge fuelled attack. Of course Edward comes to her rescue, but it doesn't change the fact that this scene happened.
Pretty Woman is a film with a much greater level of pragmatic darkness than it's "rom com" categorisation would lead anyone to expect. As I said before, I would have loved to have seen the original screenplay committed to film. Obviously with Julia & Richard still in the leading roles cause they are both very capable of such depth - Julia's done Steel Magnolias, Erin Brockovich, Oceans Eleven & most recently August: Osage County. While Richard incidentally starred in a decidedly dark escort based film of his own 9 years previous to Pretty Woman entitled "American Gigolo". Gere has also garnered critical praise for roles in Primal Fear, Arbitrage & Days of Heaven.
