This Famous Julia Roberts Movie Has a Shockingly Low Rotten Tomatoes Score—Here’s Why the Critics Are Totally Wrong

When it premiered in 1990, Pretty Woman was a box-office hit. The Julia Roberts romantic comedy raked in a whopping $463 million and established her as a Hollywood leading lady with a Golden Globe nomination. So its terrible Rotten Tomatoes score, which clocks in at a low 64 percent, really threw me for a loop. With the 35th anniversary of Pretty Woman coming up on March 23, as well as the Oscars seeing a similar contender in Anora (whose Tomatometer is 93 percent), all I can say is, Pretty Woman walked so Anora could run. Here is my humble case for why the rom-com deserved so much more.

Unabashedly, I am 100 percent that person who watches film and television for the costume design alone. (Maybe that’s why I love Wes Anderson so much?) When I think about some of the best cinema fashion of all time, Pretty Woman is on the list. Sure, Vivian Ward’s (Roberts) cutout mini-dress, screaming red blazer and thigh-high boots are scene stealers, but her transformation is just as iconic. From the brown polk-a-dot dress she wears to the polo match to her puffy-sleeve button-front dress with gloves and a hat and the dazzling red ballgown she wears to the opera…tell me she’s not serving looks in every scene.

Admittedly, the premise of Pretty Woman is rough. Originally, the screenplay wasn’t a romantic comedy; it was supposed to be a dark drama about prostitution in the 1980s. At the start of the film, Vivian is working as a Hollywood escort, having left home at a young age without so much as a high school diploma. She lives in a hotel apartment and her roommate blows the rent money on drugs. This is prime rags-to-riches material, but time and again, Vivian proves that she’s no Sleeping Beauty content to snooze until Prince Charming arrives. When said prince, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) does appear, spasmodically in a stick shift sports car he can’t drive, Vivian takes the wheel—literally—driving him to his hotel.

She negotiates her weekly rate (which humorously does not end up in her favor) and stands up for herself when Edward reveals the nature of their relationship to his lawyer, who uses the information to proposition her. Towards the end of the film, Edward offers Vivian the stuff of Disney princess movies: a condo and an allowance. She refuses, opting instead to go back to San Francisco, quit the industry and get her GED. The Rotten Tomatoes score poorly reflects this plucky character who, despite her circumstances, doesn’t stop wanting, dreaming and, most importantly, working for more. Vivian knows what she wants and she knows who she is, her “profession” be damned. And she’s not about to settle for something, even if it is a good offer.

Ultimately, the true genius of the film is that despite her position in society, Vivian had agency, never powerless to the whims of others who wanted to control her. And for that, the Tomatometer should read at least 90 percent. Now, take me to Rodeo Drive.