Editing Pretty Woman (section)

=== Critical response {{anchor|Critics}} ===
''Pretty Woman'' received mixed reviews from critics, with positive reviews praising the stars' chemistry and the dialogue.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Semigran |first=Aly |date=March 23, 2015 |title=The 25 Most Iconic Things About 'Pretty Woman' |url=https://www.vh1.com/news/48dqma/pretty-woman-25th-anniversary |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240625162759/https://www.vh1.com/news/48dqma/pretty-woman-25th-anniversary |archive-date=June 25, 2024 |access-date=June 25, 2024 |work=[[VH1]] |quote=When it arrived in theaters back in 1990, the film opened to mixed reviews}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Burke |first=Dana |date=December 17, 2019 |title=Movies turning 30 in 2020 |url=https://www.chron.com/culture/main/slideshow/Movies-turning-20-in-2020-198712.php |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240625162923/https://www.chron.com/culture/main/slideshow/Movies-turning-20-in-2020-198712.php |archive-date=June 25, 2024 |access-date=June 25, 2024 |work=[[Houston Chronicle]] |quote=Pretty Woman received mixed reviews from critics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Flockhart |first=Gary |date=February 15, 2023 |title=Pretty Woman: The Musical to visit Edinburgh Playhouse on UK tour - how to get tickets |url=https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/pretty-woman-the-musical-to-visit-edinburgh-playhouse-on-uk-tour-how-to-get-tickets-4027437 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240625163328/https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/pretty-woman-the-musical-to-visit-edinburgh-playhouse-on-uk-tour-how-to-get-tickets-4027437 |archive-date=June 25, 2024 |access-date=June 25, 2024 |work=[[Edinburgh Evening News]] |quote=The film received mixed reviews on its release}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Bukszpan |first=Daniel |date=September 10, 2010 |title=The 15 Most Profitable Movies of All Time |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2010/09/10/The-15-Most-Profitable-Movies-of-All-Time.html |access-date=August 9, 2024 |work=[[CNBC]] |quote=The movie was not exactly well received by critics}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Pretty Woman |date=9 February 2010 |url=https://www.timeout.com/movies/pretty-woman |access-date=November 2, 2024 |website=Time Out Magazine}}</ref> On review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 77 reviews, with an average rating of 6.0/10. The website's critical consensus states, "''Pretty Woman'' may be a yuppie fantasy, but the film's slick comedy, soundtrack, and casting can overcome misgivings."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://rottentomatoes.com/m/pretty_woman/ |title= Pretty Woman |work= [[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date= November 20, 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130102221755/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pretty_woman/ |archive-date= January 2, 2013 |url-status= live}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.metacritic.com/movie/pretty-woman |title= Pretty Woman Reviews |work= [[Metacritic]] |access-date= September 29, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110416085642/http://www.metacritic.com/movie/pretty-woman |archive-date= April 16, 2011 |url-status= live}}</ref> Audiences polled by [[CinemaScore]] gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cinemascore.com|title=Find CinemaScore|format=Type "Pretty Woman" in the search box|publisher=[[CinemaScore]]|access-date=March 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102130540/https://www.cinemascore.com/|archive-date=January 2, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> 

The film's detractors criticized the overuse of the "[[hooker with a heart of gold]]" trope.<ref name="Lorraine" /> Others opined that the film sugarcoats the realities of [[sex work]].<ref name="EW2010" /><ref name="Kenny">{{cite news |last1=Kenny |first1=Glenn |title=Julia Robert's career |url=https://ew.com/article/1994/12/02/julia-roberts-career/ |access-date=2 November 2024 |work=EW.com |date=December 2, 1994}}</ref> [[Gary Giddins]] wrote, "In the insidious ''Pretty Woman'', all women who aren't explicitly identified as tramps are gold-digging wives or snooty shopkeepers. It's the kind of working-class fantasy that wants the men in the audience to identify with a ruthless corporate pirate (Richard Gere) and the woman to identify with a simple but grandhearted streetwalker (Julia Roberts), who, given a chance, could be a lady's lady....The attempted laughs (few succeed) are at her expense."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Giddins |first=Gary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bz-JXShQWlMC |title=Natural Selection: Gary Giddins on Comedy, Film, Music and Books |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0195179514 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Bz-JXShQWlMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA201 201] |access-date=November 2, 2024}}</ref> 

[[Owen Gleiberman]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' gave the film a "D," saying it "starts out as a neo-Pygmalion comedy" and becomes a "plastic [[Screwball comedy|screwball]] soap opera", with the "kinds of characters who exist nowhere but in the minds of callowly manipulative Hollywood screenwriters".<ref name="EW1990" /> Gleiberman conceded that with the film's "tough-hooker heroine, it can work as a feminist version of an upscale princess fantasy."<ref name="EW1990" /> He also said it "pretends to be about how love transcends money," but "is really obsessed with status symbols."<ref name="EW1990">{{cite magazine |first=Owen |last=Gleiberman |url=https://ew.com/article/2007/07/26/pretty-woman-2/ |title=Pretty Woman |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=March 23, 1990 |access-date=September 29, 2009 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090427093915/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,316998,00.html |archive-date= April 27, 2009 |url-status= live}}</ref> On the film's twentieth anniversary, Gleiberman wrote another article addressing his original review, saying that while he felt some of his criticisms were valid, he would have given it a "B" today.<ref name="EW2010">{{cite magazine |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |date=March 24, 2010 |title='Pretty Woman': 20 Years after My Most Infamous Review (Yes, I gave it a D), Here's My Mea Culpa—and Also My Defense |url=https://ew.com/article/2010/03/24/pretty-woman-my-most-infamous-review/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120922161815/http://insidemovies.ew.com/2010/03/24/pretty-woman-my-most-infamous-review/ |archive-date=September 22, 2012 |access-date=July 15, 2011 |magazine=Entertainment Weekly}}</ref> 

[[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' gave a positive review, praising how the film is about "a particularly romantic kind of love, the sort you hardly see in the movies these days".<ref name="Ebert">{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=March 23, 1990 |title=Pretty Woman |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/pretty-woman-1990 |access-date=November 2, 2024 |website=RogerEbert.com}}</ref> He added it "protects its fragile love story in the midst of cynicism and compromise. The performances are critical for that purpose. Gere plays new notes here; his swagger is gone, and he's more tentative, proper, even shy. Roberts does an interesting thing; she gives her character an irrepressibly bouncy sense of humor and then lets her spend the movie trying to repress it. Actresses who can do that and look great can have whatever they want in Hollywood."<ref name="Ebert" />

''[[The New York Times]]''{{'}} [[Janet Maslin]] wrote: "Despite this quintessentially late 80's outlook, and despite a covetousness and underlying misogyny that bring Mr. Marshall's earlier '[[Overboard (1987 film)|Overboard]]' to mind, 'Pretty Woman' manages to be giddy, lighthearted escapism much of the time. Ms. Roberts, as noted, is a complete knockout, and this performance will make her a major star...Mr. Gere is mildly constrained by the button-down aspects of Edward's character, but he manages to be dapper, amusing, and the perfect foil. Though it has not been that long since he himself was on the other side of the [[American Gigolo|Hollywood gigolo equation]], he conveys a dignity and presence well suited to a soon-to-be-radicalized captain of industry."<ref name=Maslin>{{Cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet |date=March 23, 2020 |title=Review/Film; High-Rolling Boy Meets Streetwalking Girl |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/23/movies/review-film-high-rolling-boy-meets-streetwalking-girl.html |access-date=November 2, 2024 |work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219003019/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/23/movies/review-film-high-rolling-boy-meets-streetwalking-girl.html |archive-date=December 19, 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Carina Chocano of ''The New York Times'' said the movie "wasn't a love story, it was a money story. Its logic depended on a disconnect between character and narrative, between image and meaning, between money and value, and that made it not cluelessly traditional but thoroughly postmodern."<ref name=Chocano>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/magazine/mag-24Riff-t.html?pagewanted=all |title= Thelma, Louise and All the Pretty Women |first= Carina |last= Chocano |work= [[The New York Times]] |date= April 11, 2011 |access-date= February 28, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170401002608/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/magazine/mag-24Riff-t.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date= April 1, 2017 |url-status= live}}</ref> In a 2019 interview, Roberts expressed uncertainty over whether the film could be made today due to its controversial premise, commenting, "So many things you could poke a hole in, but I don't think it takes away from people being able to enjoy it".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/15/highly-relatable-julia-roberts-and-lucas-hedges-on-their-family-affair | title='I wish I had her cheeks': Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges on their family affair | newspaper=The Guardian | date=March 15, 2019 | last1=Nicholson | first1=Amy }}</ref><ref name=R29>{{Cite web |last=Cohen |first=Anne |date=March 23, 2020 |title=30 Years Later, "Pretty Woman" Is So Much More Than A Guilty Pleasure |url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2018/07/203053/pretty-woman-modern-review-julia-roberts-richard-gere |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=[[Refinery29]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name=Tobias>{{Cite news |last=Tobias |first=Scott |date=23 March 2020 |title=Pretty Woman at 30: conservatism, materialism and glowing star power |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/23/pretty-woman-30-conservatism-materialism-glowing-star-power |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323150231/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/mar/23/pretty-woman-30-conservatism-materialism-glowing-star-power |archive-date=2020-03-23 |access-date=November 2, 2024 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>