Summary
As Vivian sits on a red convertible, a man polishes her shoes, telling her that having a member of the club polish one’s shoes is a part of polo tradition. As he walks away, David, Morse’s grandson, approaches and greets Vivian, recognizing her from their dinner the other night. When Phil sees them interacting from a distance, he looks disapproving and walks away quickly. David invites Vivian over to meet his horse, and Vivian tells him that Edward is waiting for her, before agreeing to briefly come and meet his horse. “I didn’t know you were playing today,” says Vivian.
Elsewhere, Edward lies to Phil about how he met Vivian: “I was asking for directions. There she was.” Probing him, Phil asks what Vivian does for work, and Edward tells him that she is in sales. Suspiciously, Edward asks why Philip wants to know, and Phil tells him that he has been noticing some differences in Edward this past week—pointing out his new tie—and suspects that this has something to do with Vivian. “Especially when I see her talking to David Morse,” he says, pointing out Vivian and David to Edward. When Edward turns around to see the two talking, he replies that they met the other night at dinner. Phil remains suspicious, suggesting to Edward that maybe Vivian is trying to seduce Edward because she is spying on behalf of Morse. Edward interrupts Phil’s neurotic accusations to assure him that Vivian is not a spy, but a “hooker.” Phil laughs at this information, saying callously, “You’re the only millionaire I know who goes looking for a bargain-basement streetwalker.” Annoyed, Edward walks away, muttering, “I’m sorry I told you,” just as Senator Adams greets him.
As Edward greets Senator Adams, whom he thanks for giving him the information on the Morse deal, Phil walks away with a mischievous grin on his face. Edward asks the Senator about the status of the deal, and the Senator tells him it is still “bogged down,” as the camera shifts to show Vivian standing beside a tree. Phil approaches her chuckling, asking her if she is having a good time and saying that it must be a change from Hollywood Boulevard. Vivian is shocked and Phil tells her that Edward told him, but that her secret is safe with him. Adding insult to injury, he asks if she ever wants to get together once Edward is out of town. Visibly insulted and hurt, Vivian tells him, “Sure, why not,” before Philip is lured away by the beckoning of his wife. Vivian is left alone as an announcement is made, and she looks over at Edward, betrayed and distraught. He notices her looking at him, smiles and nods warmly, but she turns back coldly, as the polo match begins again.
The scene shifts to Edward opening the doors of the penthouse suite. Vivian sets down her things, and when Edward asks her if she is alright—she curtly says she is fine and walks away. Vivian slams the door of the bathroom, before coming back immediately and asking, “If you were going to tell everybody I’m a hooker, why didn’t you just let me wear my own clothes?” In her own clothes, she reasons, she might have known how to handle Phil’s behavior. Edward apologizes on behalf of Phil, rationalizing that Phil has been his lawyer for many years, but this doesn’t pacify Vivian, who asks, “What are you, my pimp now?…You think you can just pass me around to your friends? I’m not your little toy.” As Vivian storms off towards the bathroom, Edward yells after her authoritatively. When she turns around, he tells her, “I hate to point out the obvious, but you are, in fact, a hooker, and you are my employee.” She gets even more angry, insisting that she has autonomy over her own life, but he does not want to hear it; by his logic, he has apologized, and that marks “the end of it.” Vivian remains angry, saying that she regrets ever meeting him, and informing him, “I’ve never had anyone make me feel as cheap as you did today.” Edward retorts, “Somehow I find that very hard to believe,” as Vivian grabs her bag and prepares to leave his hotel room. Edward wilts as he realizes that she is leaving, and Vivian asks for her money. Silently, Edward throws a stack of $1000 bills onto the chair and walks away. Vivian looks down at the money, but does not pick it up, and walks out, slamming the door behind her. Edward looks over and notices that she didn’t take any of her fee.
Outside the room, Vivian waits for the elevator, frustrated that it is being so slow. Edward comes out of his room and approaches her, apologizing and telling her “I wasn’t prepared to answer questions about us. It was stupid and cruel. I didn’t mean it. I don’t want you to go.” When he asks her to stay the week, she whispers “Why?” through her tears, and he tells her that when he saw her talking to David Morse, he didn’t like it. The door of the elevator opens, and Dennis the elevator operator emerges and asks if they are going down. After a moment of suspense—will she leave?—Vivian shakes her head, and a confused Dennis retreats back into the elevator. “You hurt me,” she says to Edward. When he agrees, she simply says, “Don’t do it again,” and walks back into the hotel room. He takes her bags from her and shuts the door behind them.
The couple lie in bed naked facing each other, and Vivian tells Edward more about her romantic history. She details how she has typically loved men who didn’t treat her well—“my mom called me a bum magnet. If there was a bum within a 50-mile radius, I was completely attracted to him.” She then tells him that she followed a man to Los Angeles and ended up in the city without any friends or money. Having worked a few different jobs, in fast food and parking cars, Vivian still couldn’t make rent and “was too ashamed to go home.” Kit invited Vivian into the world of prostitution. While prostitution was hard in the beginning, Vivian tells him, she got used to it, and “it’s not like anybody plans this. It’s not your childhood dream.” When Edward assures her that she could be “so much more,” Vivian responds, “People put you down enough, you start to believe it.” Edward continues to compliment Vivian, telling her that she is “bright” and “special,” and Vivian tells him that “the bad stuff is easier to believe…You ever notice that?”
The scene shifts to the exterior of Edward’s office building. Inside, Phil gives instructions to a secretary, before asking another assistant, “Did he sign this?” She responds, “No, he said he had to leave.” Edward emerges from a room, and a flustered Phil begs him to stay. Edward assures him that “Morse isn’t going anywhere,” and that he will be back tomorrow morning. He then asks the secretary if she sent the tickets to the hotel, and tells Phil that he has a date. “With the hooker?” asks Phil, which visibly angers Edward. Turning back to Phil, Edward only says, “Be careful, Philip,” and walks away.
Edward is in the penthouse in a tuxedo, waiting patiently for Vivian to emerge. When she does, she is wearing a red gown and white gloves. “Do I look okay?” she asks, and Edward tells her that something’s missing. Opening a box, Edward reveals a necklace, which he says is “only on loan.” As she reaches for the necklace, he jokingly closes the box on her fingers, which causes her to erupt in laughter. As he fastens the necklace around her neck, Vivian asks him how much the necklace would cost to purchase, and he tells her “a quarter of a million dollars.” On the elevator, Vivian asks Edward where they are going, and he tells her it’s a surprise. She looks at him and says, “If I forget to tell you later, I had a really good time tonight.” Dennis, the elevator operator, smiles at the romantic moment.
The couple walks through the lobby of the hotel, and the employees look at them smiling. Edward tells Vivian, “When you’re not fidgeting, you look very beautiful, and very tall,” and she laughs. The couple gets in a limousine waiting for them outside the hotel, as Lauren Wood’s “Fallen” plays. We see the limousine make its way to the airport, and pull up alongside a private jet. The couple gets out of the car, and Vivian tells Edward that she has never been on a plane before. We see the plane take flight, as the captain address Edward in voiceover, telling him that the weather is clear and the flight to San Francisco will be smooth. Once in San Francisco, Edward escorts Vivian into an opera house.
Inside, an usher brings the couple to a private box, as the orchestra tunes. Edward greets a couple in a neighboring box, and Vivian marvels at the beautiful opera house. “If you’re afraid of heights, why do you get seats up here?” she asks. He responds, “Because they’re the best,” and the two take their seats. The usher motions to the opera glasses, and as Vivian struggles to use hers, she asks Edward how she will be able to understand the opera if it’s in Italian. Adjusting her opera glasses, Edward assures her that she will understand, that the music is “very powerful.” Just before the opera starts, Edward tells Vivian, “People’s reactions to opera the first time they see it is very dramatic. They either love it or they hate it. If they love it, they will always love it. If they don’t, they may learn to appreciate it, but it will never become part of their soul.”
The overture of the opera La Traviata begins and Vivian smiles. The scene shifts to later in the opera and we see the soprano playing Violetta singing the famous aria, “Sempre libera.” Vivian and Edward watch from the box. Later in the opera, Violetta sings to Alfredo in a moment of high drama. Vivian looks to Edward as the passion escalates. As the couple onstage embrace, Vivian breathes deeply, clearly entranced. Her eyes well up with tears as she watches the conclusion of the opera, and Edward looks over to see her crying, moved by the opera. The couple stands and the woman in the neighboring box asks her if she enjoyed the opera. Vivian responds, “Oh it was so good I almost peed my pants,” which shocks the older woman. Edward tries to cover up Vivian’s faux pas by assuring the woman, “She says she liked it better than Pirate of Penzance.” The old woman smiles, but remains shocked.
The couple arrives back at the hotel. In the penthouse, they play chess by candlelight. When Edward says he needs to go to bed because he is working in the morning, Vivian entreats him to take the day off. “I do own the company,” he says, persuaded. As the camera zooms in on the chess pieces, the shot shifts to the exterior of an office high rise. Inside, Phil plays a miniature game of pool on his desk. A secretary tells Phil that Edward called to say that he is taking the day off. Phil is clearly annoyed, shrugging in disbelief.
A romantic montage follows. Vivian walks along the perimeter of a fountain, while Edward walks beside her on the sidewalk. Spotting a “snap dog vendor” nearby, she asks for money to buy them snap dogs and tells him they will sit under a tree and eat them. Sitting on a blanket on the grass, Edward talks business on a cell phone while Vivian takes his socks off and finally grabs the phone from his hands. The shot shifts to them now lying in each other’s arms on the blanket, as Edward reads Shakespeare quotations to Vivian aloud. Later, the couple sits at a bar at a diner. We see them through the window of the diner from the outside, both gesticulating and sharing in a passionate conversation. The shot shifts to the couple in a cab, Vivian leaning her head on Edward’s shoulder and falling asleep.
Back at the hotel room, Vivian stands in front of a mirror in a silk slip. She takes her hair down and walks into the bedroom, smiling at Edward sleeping upright in bed. Sitting beside him, she grins at the man she loves, kisses her finger and puts it to his lips. She then kisses his cheek and lips, which causes him to wake up. They kiss and hold each other, becoming more and more passionate, and Edward lays her down and removes her slip. Sexual intercourse is implied. Later, the couple lies in bed and Vivian strokes Edward’s arm, before telling him, “I love you.” He says nothing, and it is unclear if he is awake or not.
The following morning, Edward eats breakfast at the table and Vivian asks him what he is thinking. He tells her that he is thinking that it is their last night together, and “then you’ll finally be rid of me.” He tells her his business is almost over, which means he will have to go back to New York, and then tells her that he would like to see her again. She is pleased. As Edward tells her that he has arranged for her to have an apartment and a car in New York, Vivian’s smile fades and she rests her head in her hand. “What else?” she asks, “You gonna leave some money on the bed when you pass through town?” Edward resists, telling her that it would not be like that, and that it would get her off the streets. “That’s just geography,” she responds, and walks away from the table.
Vivian goes out onto the balcony and Edward asks her what she wants. She says she doesn’t know. She then tells him that when she was little her mom would lock her in the attic when she was bad, and there she would pretend she was a princess who would one day be rescued by a knight. Walking over to Edward, she explains, “But never in all the time that I had this dream, did the knight say to me, ‘Come on, baby. I’ll put you up in a great condo.’” Edward and Vivian look at one another as the phone rings. Edward goes and answers it. It is Phil, who tells Edward that Morse wants to meet with him that day. In his bathroom, in a robe, Phil seems delighted, saying, “I think we got him!” While Phil thinks they should meet this afternoon, Edward insists that they meet downtown that morning, as he hangs up and grabs his jacket to leave.
Edward walks over to Vivian and tells her he has to go. Looking at her, he says, “I heard everything you said, but this is all I’m capable of right now. It’s a really big step for me.” Vivian adjusts his tie, and tells him, “It’s a really good offer for a girl like me.” Edward pushes back on her resentment, saying, “I’ve never treated you like a prostitute,” and leaves. Alone in the room, Vivian says to herself, “You just did.”
Analysis
Edward's revelation that Vivian is a prostitute to Phil completely changes his attitude towards her, which reveals how vulnerable Vivian is to misogyny and the snobbery of the wealthy classes. With the knowledge that Vivian is a "hooker," Phil descends, and feels total ownership of her. As soon as he knows that she is purchasable, he disrespects Vivian. Furthermore, Vivian feels more vulnerable to Phil precisely because she is pretending to not be a prostitute. She tells Edward that if she was wearing her own clothes, she could have handled Phil, but in a nice dress at a polo match, he humiliated her. Echoing her philosophy about not having a pimp from earlier in the movie, she yells at Edward, “I say who! I say when!” The world of elite wealth that Edward has invited her into is just as dangerous as her life on the streets, and she is caught between worlds, unable to act freely.
In this portion of the film, we see the relationship between Edward and Vivian explicitly move beyond the realm of the transactional. When Vivian leaves the hotel room after their fight, she asks for her money for the week, but when Edward throws a stack of bills onto the chair, she cannot bring herself to take it. While the nature of the couples’ relationship before this has always involved money, in this moment money is not an adequate measure of their love. In throwing more than Vivian’s rate onto the chair, Edward communicates that he sees their time together as priceless, that he does not care to put a value on his affection for her. Likewise, by not accepting the money, Vivian communicates that she sees their time together as more meaningful than a simple business arrangement. In not accepting the money, she also communicates that his callousness about her line of work at the polo match has led her to feel more self-respecting—she is not interested in accepting money from someone who disrespected her. These small communications, however painful, prove to each of them the strength of their romantic connection, and confirms that each of them has a deeper investment.
In their moment of conflict, the couple assures one another that money is not the currency of their love, but once reconciled, Edward gives Vivian a number of valuable gifts. The necklace that he gets on loan is worth a quarter of a million dollars, he tells her, and it serves as a symbol for his love for her. Having explained her story and path towards prostitution, Vivian is now less an employee than a lover, but that does not stop Edward from lavishing her with signifiers of his wealth. He offers her the best that money can buy—an expensive loaned necklace, a private flight to New York, a ticket to the opera. Money might not be the basis of their connection anymore, but it still holds symbolic weight. Edward bestows the privileges of his wealth on Vivian, further solidifying their connection. In this portion of the film Vivian’s transformation is completed. She is no longer defined by her career as a prostitute, but rather as a perfect date to the opera.
The couple see the opera La Traviata by Verdi, which bears certain resemblances to the plot of Pretty Woman. The central character in La Traviata is Violetta, a courtesan who is beloved by a wealthy man, Alfredo. The opera offers a heightened, dramatic rendering of the cross-class relationship dynamic between Vivian and Edward, and we see the couple identifying with the onstage action from their seats in the box. Opera is a way for the couple to share a cathartic experience of their own romantic narrative. The story of a vulnerable courtesan moves Vivian deeply, as she comically tells a fancy old opera-goer, “it was so good I almost peed my pants.”
The alternately romantic and financial nature of the couple’s affair makes Vivian uncertain and ambivalent. When Edward offers for Vivian to come and live with him in New York, and details all of the luxuries he will provide for her, she feels insulted. While she was content at the start of the film simply to be Edward’s prostitute, she has now fallen in love with him, and as such does not want to feel like his employee. She feels thankful for his love and support when it feels genuine, but she does not want to feel like a recipient of charity. The film seeks to complicate the relationship between love and money, and to highlight Vivian’s desire to feel taken care of emotionally as well as materially. While money is an unavoidably powerful element of the film, Vivian does not want it to dictate or override the ways of the heart. Edward’s offer, while appealing practically, only makes Vivian feel more like a sex worker, because he discusses it in purely material terms.
