I must be the only female on the planet who hadn't seen this.
Basically, it's a Cinderella/Pygmalion story, in which sassy streetwalker Vivian (Julia Roberts) is picked up by a smarmy millionaire, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), who pays her £3000 dollars to spend a week with him. High-class clothing is included in the deal. To me, £3000 sounds like a pretty rubbish deal coming from a millionaire; Robert Redford was nice enough to offer a million dollars to Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal, and she got more glamorous dresses.
The film is fun and witty and good chick flick fodder; my main issue is Gere. Unless you already see him as the man of your dreams, this won't change your mind. His character is so smarmy and dull that the wish-fulfilment aspect fails for me. I can imagine a sort of modern-day equivilent of Cary Grant in the role; he has no smooth charisma to smooth over the dubious moral messages.
"We both screw people for money" says Edward, in one of his more interesting moments. The film could have been an interesting look at how people sell out for money, which would have levelled the playing field. To be fair to Gere, he does do emptiness quite well; except that emptiness never materialises into a personality. Julia Roberts on the other hand is bubbly and charming as the 'tart with a heart', looking fashionable in both her streetwalking gear and her country club evening wear. Fashionable as you could be in the nineties.
I enjoyed the film, if only to feel that if the fairy tale romance is to be a boring millionaire's eternal prostitute, I'm not missing out on much. It did make me want to rush out for retail therapy though; I want that dress in the photo in dark green...