When the plot works like a clockwork.

Made in 1988 and having a stellar cast: Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford, “Working Girl” was received in the 80’s as both a satire and a portrait of capitalism. There’s no prequel, no IP, the audience connects with an ambitious yet relatable character.

Tess has a clear goal: get into the entrée program. The problem? She doesn’t have an ivy league education nor is well connected.

In an era where villains want to conquer or destroy the world, Sigourney Weaver (Katharine Parker) plays none. Before The Devil Wears Prada, Mike Nichols and Michael Ballhaus (Cinematographer) knew to how use the color red in order to foreshadow danger. And since this is a romantic comedy, it’s important to have a love interest, enter Harrison Ford (Jack Trainer) as a businessman with a heart of gold.

“Working Girl” plays really well with contrasts: wealth and poverty. The plot is simple: Tess has a great idea. Tess pitches the idea to Katharine. Katharine turns down Tess’s idea, but in reality Katharine wants to steal it. Tess finds out about this and then hilarity ensues.

The originality of “Working Girl” is that Kevin Wade (Writer) and Mike Nichols tell the audience a “fish out of a water” story and then slowly, the fish adapts to the new environment. Tess does many questionable things in order to get what she wants, but the audience cares because Ballhaus shows us how hard Tess works.

The execution of how a character gets what they want needs to rely more on believable plot points. Every single obstacle in “Working Girl” is believable within the world of the movie. There’s no multiverse. There’s cleverness.

We need that in movies, a clear execution of a character going through the motions, and “Working Girl” does that every step of the way.