Summary
Vivian receives a call from Barnard at the front desk, who tells her that she has a visitor. It is Kit, who asks Barnard to give her the phone. She tells Vivian to come down to the lobby, because “the sphincter police won’t let me through.” A hotel worker tells Barnard that the window washer won’t come down, and Barnard looks exasperated as he walks away. Kit rests her head on the front desk counter as the girl behind the front desk looks at her, confused. Kit raises her head and turns to an elderly couple looking at her skeptically. She provocatively tells them, “50 bucks grampa. For 75, the wife can watch.” The couple walks away, scandalized.
The scene shifts to Vivian and Kit walking alongside a pool outside. Vivian tells Kit that she was supposed to come to the hotel earlier in the week to pick up the money she had left at the front desk. Kit explains that things have been chaotic in the neighborhood, and thanks her for the money. Kit marvels at Vivian’s physical transformation, saying “You clean up real nice,” as they sit down at a table on the patio. Vivian tells Kit that it’s easy to clean up when one has money, and Kit asks Vivian when Edward is leaving town. Vivian tells Kit that Edward asked to see her again, but that she thinks she definitely does not want to. Kit calls Vivian’s bluff, however, saying, “I know this weepy look on your face…You fell in love with him, didn’t you?” Vivian is indignant, but eventually admits that she did in fact kiss Edward on the mouth. Kit looks at her with disappointment and says, “You fall in love with him and you kiss him on the mouth? Did I not teach you anything?” Vivian assures her that she just likes him, but is not in love with him.
When Vivian asks Kit if she’s doomed to get her heart broken, Kit jokes, “Maybe you guys could like, you know, get a house together, and like, buy some diamonds and a horse,” which makes Vivian giggle. “It could work! It happens!” insists Kit. Vivian isn’t convinced, however, and wants to know who it actually ever works out for. She asks Kit to give her the name of someone for whom moving in with a client has worked, and Kit struggles to think of one for a minute, before finally throwing up her hands with an answer: “Cinder-fuckin’-rella.” Vivian and Kit laugh more.
The scene shifts to Edward in a boardroom, at the head of a conference table, Morse and David on one side of him, Phil on the other. Phil invites Morse to speak and Morse says, “I’ve reconsidered my position on your acquisition offer. On one condition: I’m not so concerned about me, but the people who are working for me.” Phil assures him that his employees will be “taken care of.” Phil moves on to the next order of business, but Edward interrupts him, and asks to speak to Morse alone. Phil instructs everyone to leave the room, but Edward assures Phil that he needs to leave as well. Phil fights the decision, asking why David gets to stay. After Edward calmly pleads with him to leave, Phil exits, followed by David. Phil shuts the door behind him.
Alone with Morse, Edward closes the blinds and offers Morse a cup of coffee. “My interest in your company has changed,” he says, and tells Morse that he no longer wants to buy his company and “take it apart.” Be that as it may, he says, Morse’s company is still vulnerable, and he doesn’t want another company to buy it in his stead. “I want to help you,” he tells a surprised Morse. Morse simply asks, “Why?” Outside, Phil tries to listen in, as David stands beside him with his arms crossed. Phil walks away from the door. Inside, Edward tells Morse that he wants to help make a special business deal with Morse’s company, and that the Navy contracts are only delayed, not blocked—he had bluffed. Morse stands and puts his hand on Edward’s shoulder, saying, “I’m proud of you.” Edward thanks him, and lets in the other businessmen. The other businessmen come in the room, and Edward walks out, telling Phil to finish up the meeting. Outside, Edward listens at the door as Phil realizes that the contracts are not signed. “Mr. Lewis and I are going to build ships together,” says Morse. Phil looks horrified.
The scene shifts to Edward, outside the office, telling his driver that he’s going for a walk. The driver sits on the hood of the car. Elsewhere, Edward walks on the grass in bare feet, which hearkens back to earlier when Vivian took his socks off in the park and put his bare feet onto the grass. The shot shifts rapidly from Edward’s feet to Vivian’s feet, as she walks barefoot along the carpet in the hotel room. The doorbell rings, and when she answers the door she finds Phil waiting there. He tells her he is looking for Edward, but she coolly informs him that Edward is not there and that she thought Edward was with him. Phil enters the room, telling her that Edward is not with him either, and saying, “Edward is definitely not with me. If Edward were with me…When, actually…When Edward was with me, he didn’t blow off billion-dollar deals. I think that Edward’s with you, that’s what I think.” He pours a glass of bourbon and offers it to Vivian, but she doesn’t want it. As Vivian sits on the couch, Phil says that he will wait for Edward.
Vivian tells Phil that Edward should be home soon, and begins to write something. Laughing Phil approaches her, and tells her that they are not “home,” but in a hotel room. Menacingly, Phil reminds Vivian that she is not Edward’s “little woman,” but a hooker. He clearly attributes Edward’s having blown the deal with Morse to his love affair with Vivian, and wants to cut her down to size. He becomes physically disrespectful, grabbing her leg and telling her that he is angry, and that “maybe if I screw you, and take you to the opera, then I could be a happy guy just like Edward.” Vivian pushes him away, and they get in a physical struggle. Eventually she bites his hand in rage, and he smacks her onto the ground and climbs on top of her, calling her a whore and asking her about her rate. Edward reaches down behind him, however, and grabs Phil. As he pushes Phil out of the room, Phil tries to remind Edward that Vivian is a “whore,” but Edward punches him in the face before he can say anything more. “I think you broke my nose,” says Phil, looking in the mirror, and Edward directs him to the door. Phil pleads that he has devoted 10 years of his career to Edward, but this infuriates Edward, who says, “It’s the kill you love, not me! And I made you a very rich man doing exactly what you loved. Now get outta here!” When Phil doesn’t leave, Edward screams and slams the door behind him.
A close up on Edward’s hand, putting pieces of ice into the middle of a cloth. On the couch, Vivian bemoans the fact that “guys always know exactly how to hit a woman right across the cheek.” Edward presses the ice against her cheek, caressing her forehead and insisting, “not all guys hit.” “I heard about what you did with Morse…It was good,” she tells him. He affirms her, “It felt good,” and caresses her cheek. Pushing the ice away, Vivian tells Edward that she has to go. “Why are you leaving now?” he asks. She tells him that she fears that there will always be someone like Phil who will treat her poorly if she stays with him. “What are you gonna do? You gonna beat up everybody?” she asks him, but he doesn’t believe that’s why she is leaving. She tells him that he made her a nice offer, but that now that she is in love with him, she wants more. “I know about wanting more,” he tells her, adding, “But how much more?” She tells him, “I want the fairy tale.”
As Vivian puts on her shoes, Edward laments that he always finds himself in the “impossible relationship.” He sits beside her on the steps and hands her a wad of cash and his business card, joking that she can call him whenever she needs anything. They both laugh and agree that they had a good time, and Vivian stands and walks out. He carries her bags to the door, but at the last moment, impulsively invites her to stay, “not because I’m paying you, but because you want to.” Vivian says she can’t, and Edward lets her leave. She cries, telling him, “I think you have a lot of special gifts,” before leaving. Edward closes the door behind her. Down in the lobby, Barnard gives instructions to a bellboy, and Vivian approaches him and says goodbye, smiling tearfully. “I gather you’re not accompanying Mr. Lewis to New York,” says Barnard. He then calls Edward’s driver, Darryl, over and instructs him to “take Miss Vivian anywhere she wishes to go.” Vivian shakes Barnard’s hand and says her goodbyes—“Stay cool”—before following Darryl to the car. Barnard watches her go, knowingly.
In the back of Edward’s limousine, Vivian weeps, as “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette plays. Vivian looks out the rear window of the car, back at the hotel, chuckling to herself about her transformative week. The limousine makes its way down the street, as the scene shifts to Edward standing on his balcony, looking down hesitantly, trying to overcome his fear of heights. He goes inside, and the camera pans to the plants growing out on the balcony. The time shifts and Edward is packing up to leave Los Angeles. A bellboy asks Edward if he has packed up everything, and Edward tells him he has and dismisses him.
It is a rainy day, and we are transported to Kit and Vivian’s apartment. Kit looks at a photo of the two friends and says they look dopey. Clutching a teddy bear, Kit tells Vivian that San Francisco isn’t a great place to live, and we see that Vivian is preparing to move there. When Kit asks what Vivian plans to do, Vivian tells her, “I got things I can do, you know. I used to make pretty good grades in high school.” Emotionally, Vivian asks if Kit wants to come with her, but Kit says she’s going to stay in Los Angeles. Vivian calls Kit over and puts a stack of bills in the breast pocket of her jean jacket. “It’s part of the Edward Lewis Scholarship Fund…we think you’ve got a lot of potential, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” Vivian hands over her favorite hat to Kit, but Kit refuses to accept it, and says she has to go because “goodbyes make me crazy.” The friends embrace and say their goodbyes.
In the lobby of the hotel, Edward asks Barnard if there are any messages for him. When he hears there are not, he tells Barnard he needs a ride to the airport, and Barnard instructs Darryl to bring the limousine out front. Edward then hands over the expensive necklace that he got on loan for the opera, and asks if Barnard will return it to the store. Barnard agrees, and takes a peak, saying, “It must be difficult to let go of something so beautiful.” Barnard then tells Edward that Darryl drove Vivian home the previous day, hinting that he might be able to take Edward to Vivian’s house. Edward walks away towards the car.
In the back of the limousine, Edward listens to Darryl, who tells him that his flight is on schedule. Edward looks out the window at the rainy day, and smiles to himself enigmatically. At her house, Vivian looks out her own window at the rain. The shot shifts to Kit talking to a new roommate and telling her that she needs to charge her more than she charged Vivian, and explaining that she aspires to go to beauty school and get out of prostitution. The rain has cleared up, and Kit asks the new roommate if she has ever had a goal. Nearby, Edward purchases flowers, as the girls continue to talk.
At home, Vivian slings a bag over her shoulder and hears a car honking its horn outside. Smiling, she walks towards the window, as an aria from La Traviata begins to play. On the street, Edward pops out of the sunroof of the limousine as a flock of pigeons part for the car. The limousine pulls up beside the apartment and Edward holds up flowers and an umbrella, yelling Vivian’s name, as the aria swells. Vivian smiles from her window and waves. He calls her “Princess Vivian,” and climbs the fire escape to her. He looks down at the view below, still visibly frightened of heights and she descends and accepts his roses. “So what happens after he climbs up the tower and rescues her?” he asks. Vivian responds, “She rescues him right back,” and the couple kisses. As the camera zooms out, the ranting streetwalker from earlier in the film walks by, extolling the beauty of Hollywood, land of dreams, as Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” begins to play.
Analysis
In true fairytale style, Vivian and Edward choose to follow their hearts, even when their brains are urging them to act differently. In talking to Kit, Vivian realizes that she could stand to believe in Edward’s interest in her, and truly give in to the fairytale scenario. Kit even compares Vivian to Cinderella. While neither of the prostitutes can think of anyone they know for whom moving in with a client has worked out in the prostitute’s favor, Kit encourages Vivian to dream big, to follow Edward’s offer. Vivian is so afraid of getting hurt that she is willing to throw the romance away, but Kit proves to be yet another fairy godmother figure, and urges Vivian to think like Cinderella. Kit tells Vivian to believe in herself and follow her heart, and eventually Vivian takes her advice. She even says to Edward, “I want the fairy tale.”
Just as Vivian realizes that she must follow her heart while talking to Kit, Edward has an unexpected change of heart in the context of his business meeting with Mr. Morse. In the meeting, Edward surprises everyone by wanting to help Morse’s company, rather than buy and dismantle it. He makes this decision based on a sense of loyalty to Morse, rather than his own selfish business needs. Vivian’s words urging Edward to think less in terms of materiality and more in terms of his emotions and love for her has evidently left an impression on him, an impression that extends into the boardroom. When he tells Morse that he is in “unfamiliar territory,” we can see that that unfamiliar territory is in fact Edward’s impulse to save and help a vulnerable company. Where he normally might have just made the business deal without a second thought, he is now a changed man. His love affair with Vivian has led Edward to follow his heart, in business and in love.
When Edward tells Morse he wants to help him, not only does it show his desire to temper his business decision with consideration for others, but it also serves a virtual reconciliation with his recently deceased father. Edward revealed to Vivian that his relationship with his father was strained and non-existent in the years leading up to his death, so now when Morse puts his hand on Edward’s shoulder after they make the deal, and tells him that he is “proud” of him, we see that Edward’s good deed has redeemed him in the eyes of a paternal figure. In this final section of the film, Edward has softened, and he seeks redemption for the conflicts of his past.
In this portion of the film, Phil transitions from comically evil sidekick to full-blown misogynistic villain, as he takes out his anger about the dropped business deal on the vulnerable Vivian. As he gets more and more enraged, he becomes more disrespectful towards Vivian, degrading her for her profession, and becoming sexual and violent all at once. He hits her and disparages her, and is seemingly on the verge of raping her, when Edward apprehends him, and sends him packing. Phil is reprehensible in this scene, proving his own callow misogyny and violence. Even though they parted on angry terms, Edward returns to Vivian’s aid, a white knight in a cruel and ruthless world.
Yet again, romance and business are conflated, but now, at the end of the film, Edward and Vivian’s definitions of each other have changed a bit. When they first attempt strike a deal at the end in the hotel room, Vivian tries to negotiate for “more,” but when Edward asks how much more, she responds that she wants “the fairy tale.” Transformed by her week spent with Edward, Vivian’s desires are less quantitative now, and more qualitative, less financial and more fanciful, less contractual and more romantic. She wants the fairytale ending, not just the money. While the financial security that Edward offers is meaningful, it is not the reason that Vivian wants to be with him. Taking Kit’s advice, Vivian dreams of being Cinderella, dreams of being saved from poverty by a man who loves her for who she is, and who will give her the romantic, fairytale treatment she feels she deserves. Edward eventually does give her this fairytale ending, arriving at her run-down apartment in a limousine with flowers, calling her “Princess Vivian,” and climbing the fire escape as though it were a tower, to whisk her off her feet and save her from poverty once and for all.
