The 80s woman meets the American Dream.

In director Mike Nichols' (The Graduate) latest venture, Working Girl, he takes a funny look at a serious topic and creates an enjoyable but inconsistent film.

Working Girl deals with some of the sexist obstacles a woman faces when climbing the ladder of success. There is her boss, who treats her as a personal slave, her male co-workers, who set her up with men looking for a lunch hour quickie, and her boyfriend who is more interested in her undergarments than her job advancement.

Melanie Griffith (Something Wild, Body Double) plays Tess McGill, a 'working girl' who wants more than anything to succeed. She's not dumb: she reads everything from the New York Post's society page to Fortune magazine, keeping up on all aspects of life and piecing them together. As Tess herself comments, "You never know where a big idea will come from."

Unfortunately, the film forces Tess to rely on two things: chance and good-hearted men. While she is a bright, fairly self-confident person, she is not self-reliant when she needs to be.

For example, Tess proves she has guts as she pretends that she is someone important in the business world when her boss Catherine (Sigourney Weaver of Gorillas in the Mist) is out of town. In addition, she crashes the wedding reception of a corporate executive's daughter in order to confront the big shot with her business proposal. However, once inside with the opportunity, she seemingly gives up and needs to be prodded on by her business partner Jack (Harrison Ford of Witness). This dependence on others in a time of crisis is an inconsistency in Tess's character.

Later in the film Catherine exposes Tess as a secretary in the middle of an important board meeting. Instead of standing up for herself, she simply leaves the meeting with her tail between her legs, commenting later that no one would have listened to her anyway.

Toward the end of the film, Tess once again begins to run away from a confrontation with Jack and Catherine; however, she is delayed by an accidental bump from a total stranger, which allows the others to catch up with her. Her ultimate success, therefore, stems from a chance happening and not personal initiative.

These events are inconsistent with the rest of the film, which tries to present Tess as intelligent, mature and daring. And the conclusion of the movie tends to reinforce the attitude that "the ends justify the means," that it doesn't matter how she succeeds as long as she does succeed.

Working Girl does have many good things going for it. On a technical note, there are some absolutely beautiful shots of New York City. The opening shot of the film starts with the face of the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of freedom and hope. From there the camera pulls back and moves around the statue, exposing the Staten Island Ferry heading toward Manhattan. The camera continues to move, closing in on the ferry and ultimately Tess.

In the film, Manhattan is used in many ways. It symbolizes the success that Tess will work towards, yet it also stands for the dark, the unknown, the mysterious, and the difficult that she will have to encounter.

Thus, the first shot has already established the main conflict of the film. It starts out with the statue (hope), then moves to show the city (success, difficulty), and ultimately, the combination and contradiction of the two, Tess.

Melanie Griffith's performance is endearing. When Griffith breathes life into the hard-working, street-smart secretary, the audience wants her to succeed as much as she wants to herself. Griffith crosses innocence with intelligence and tugs at our heartstrings as Tess falls victim to a cheating lover and a ruthless business world.

Sigourney Weaver is relentless as the patronizing boss who gets under everyone's skin, and Harrison Ford is both funny and romantic as Jack, who falls in love with Tess. Joan Cusack (Broadcast News) delivers an excellent supporting performance as Tess' girlfriend with interesting concepts in eye make-up. But it is ultimately Griffith who steals the show and our hearts as the 'working girl' trying to get ahead.

While the film is flawed because it does not present Tess as directly responsible for her own success, it triumphs in other respects. The dialogue is witty and fresh, the performances are top notch and the visual aspects are especially pleasing. Working Girl is a good old-fashioned fun movie.