When investment attorney Laurel Ayres (Whoopi Goldberg) quits her job after partner Tim Daly steals the promotion she should have gotten, she finds that being a woman in a man's world can't guarantee her success when she tries to start her own firm. She's smart and talented and can work miracles, but isn't as sly as Daly who takes credit for her work. So thanks to her shared secretary Dianne Wiest, she gets an appointment with powerful Eli Wallach and decides to create a white male partner whom she eventually needs to create.
What could have been a misandrist theme actually turns out to be pretty fair minded showing several women who are equally as calculating as the men (nymphomaniac investment broker Bebe Neuwirth, gossip columnist Laine Kazan, parodying Cindy Adams) and a few men who either start off as chauvinistic then come around (Wallach) or are too nervous to really push themselves (Austin Pendleton) which adds a different dimension as Whoopi rises in success and Daly begins to get nervous over her success.
An ironic twist has Daly (in a scene with a certain real estate mogul turned "politician") unable to get a table at a prominent restaurant while Whoopi swoops on by. References to other real life New Yorkers or various NYC communities adds to the atmosphere. Like "Mrs. Doubtfire", the character of Robert Cutty is created through a little gay magic through Goldberg's drag performer tenant.
The shining star of this film is the always bright presence of Dianne Wiest, so likeable and unsure of herself yet smart, the woman who really helps Whoopi turn everything around with her Radar O'Reilly like efficiency, flirting with Pendleton coyly and turning boxes of messed up files into online gold. When she tells Goldberg early in the film that she feels unappreciated and invisible, she's speaking for every office clerk who knew secretly that it was their hard work that made the office function.
The build-up to Cutty's first appearance takes a while but it is worth the wait, especially how it slips out in a conversation between Goldberg and Wiest, showing that the trust Whoopi's lacking even towards her biggest cheerleader. Having worked in the corporate world for over 25 years, I recognized every archetype presented here. This takes a unique view of the investment world and big business that were nicely parodied in the comedies "Trading Places", "Big Business" and "Working Girl" (to name some of the best ones), and Whoopi really shines in one of her best comic performances that is funny, touching, commanding and making Laurel Ayres the type of employer I'd gladly work for.
What could have been a misandrist theme actually turns out to be pretty fair minded showing several women who are equally as calculating as the men (nymphomaniac investment broker Bebe Neuwirth, gossip columnist Laine Kazan, parodying Cindy Adams) and a few men who either start off as chauvinistic then come around (Wallach) or are too nervous to really push themselves (Austin Pendleton) which adds a different dimension as Whoopi rises in success and Daly begins to get nervous over her success.
An ironic twist has Daly (in a scene with a certain real estate mogul turned "politician") unable to get a table at a prominent restaurant while Whoopi swoops on by. References to other real life New Yorkers or various NYC communities adds to the atmosphere. Like "Mrs. Doubtfire", the character of Robert Cutty is created through a little gay magic through Goldberg's drag performer tenant.
The shining star of this film is the always bright presence of Dianne Wiest, so likeable and unsure of herself yet smart, the woman who really helps Whoopi turn everything around with her Radar O'Reilly like efficiency, flirting with Pendleton coyly and turning boxes of messed up files into online gold. When she tells Goldberg early in the film that she feels unappreciated and invisible, she's speaking for every office clerk who knew secretly that it was their hard work that made the office function.
The build-up to Cutty's first appearance takes a while but it is worth the wait, especially how it slips out in a conversation between Goldberg and Wiest, showing that the trust Whoopi's lacking even towards her biggest cheerleader. Having worked in the corporate world for over 25 years, I recognized every archetype presented here. This takes a unique view of the investment world and big business that were nicely parodied in the comedies "Trading Places", "Big Business" and "Working Girl" (to name some of the best ones), and Whoopi really shines in one of her best comic performances that is funny, touching, commanding and making Laurel Ayres the type of employer I'd gladly work for.