Sunday Matinee #138 Pretty Woman
Not reading this week? Big mistake. HUGE.
Pretty Woman | 1990
IMDb | Letterboxd | RRMC
Context: Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) is a young woman who makes a living as an escort. A wealthy corporate raider and stock profiteer, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere), hires her to be his escort for a week and sets her up with the finer things in life. With money in her pocket, Vivian tries to buy herself appropriate clothing for the gig at a fancy boutique on Rodeo Drive staffed by Marie (Shane Ross) and Snobby Saleswoman (Dey Young, in a role that has no name in the credits but this well-earned title). It doesn’t go well. After some training, some new clothes, and some confidence, she returns, in what is still considered to be one of the most satisfying scenes in cinema history.
Vivian enters a fashion boutique. Customers and staff give her judgmental, icy stares. They see her clothing, they see her hair, and they “know” what she is…
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: May I help you?
VIVIAN WARD: I'm just checkin' things out.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: Are you looking for something in particular?
VIVIAN WARD: No. Well, yeah. Uh, something... conservative.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: Yes…
VIVIAN WARD: You got nice stuff.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: Thank you.
VIVIAN WARD: How much is this?
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: I don't think this would fit you.
VIVIAN WARD: …Well. I didn't ask if it would fit. I asked how much it was.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: How much is this, Marie?
MARIE: It's very expensive.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: It's very expensive.
VIVIAN WARD: Look, I got money to spend in here.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: I don't think we have anything for you. You're obviously in the wrong place. Please leave.
Vivian does leave. The next day, Vivan returns to the boutique, a woman reborn. Dressed in a gorgeous and expensive outfit, Marie and the Snobby Saleswoman have a very different tune to sing.
MARIE: May I help you?
VIVIAN WARD: (rushing past Marie) No, thank you. (Goes up to the Snobby Saleswoman) Hi.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: Hello.
Do you remember me ?
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: No, I'm sorry.
VIVIAN WARD: I was in here yesterday. You wouldn't wait on me.
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: Oh.
VIVIAN WARD: You work on commission, right ?
SNOBBY SALESWOMAN: Uh, yes.
VIVIAN WARD: Big mistake. Big. Huge! I have to go shopping now.
Cue the music…
Luke 14:1, 7-14 | EnterTheBible.org
Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost | 08.31.2025
Context: Jesus is at a dinner and teaches a very public lesson on humility, invitation, and hospitality through both an observation and later a parable.
7 When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. 8 “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host, 9 and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 11 For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
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Commentary:
Humility.
Some of us have it, some of you don’t!
Or something like that.
For a brief moment in the early 1990s, Pretty Woman was in the zeitgeist. At least, this scene was. Even people who never saw the movie knew about this scene. After all, it is wonderfully satisfying. To have people assume something about you because of the way you look or the way you carry yourself compared to how it’s “supposed to be,” only to have them proven oh-so wrong is just lovely. That’s not revenge; that’s vindication. I won’t pretend that vindication is healthier than it’s much more positive cousin, validation. But it does have its time and place.
There are plenty of varied opinions about what Pretty Woman means and if it gets its point across in the best way. But if we drill down on this scene, we see something very real. This world is filled with examples of insiders and outsiders. You’ve experienced some of them: at school, at work, in the neighborhood, at church, in families. That’s just at the personal level. It doesn’t even begin to cover the legion of -isms that draw lines between in and out to the detriment of humankind and the despair of God.
The utter disdain these saleswomen have for Vivian is only surpassed by their dismissal. She’s obviously in the wrong place, simple as that. It’s one thing to think those thoughts and process those feelings on the inside – we all get to grow from our poorly-formed opinions – but to so brazenly speak it to her face? Yikes. Maybe that’s why a little vindication goes a long way when they get called on their big mistake.
Jesus teaches in many ways. Sometimes, it’s preaching to everyone, and other days it’s specific lessons for specific people. Many of those are in private, but here he is at a dinner, teaching the host a lesson on humility in front of his guests. Getting a lesson from the teacher in front of the class? That will get you humble quick!
Really, though, this teaching is for everyone at the table. Be mindful of whether you truly are the person who gets to decide if other people are important. Is that really up to you? We are great at measuring our own greatness, and sadly we are often even greater at measuring others’. I can think of at least a few times in my life when I thought I was hot stuff, only to be put in my place. How about you?
Of course, this scripture text is a bit wider than what’s quoted here. There’s a second lesson here, too, in a story about a dinner host who keeps inviting more and more people until the banquet hall is filled. The people who are invited first all have their reasons not to show up, but it doesn’t stop the host from asking more and more to join him. Eventually, the invitation reaches the poor, the lonely, the least likely to be invited. Part of this lesson is about being the kind of person who accepts hospitality. Part of this lesson is about being a true friend.
But the key part of Jesus’s lesson in radical hospitality and inclusion is to invite those who can’t pay you back. What would happen if the host invited those people first? What would happen if the saleswomen at least humored Vivian before they found out she had money in Pretty Woman? What would happen if we stopped judging and started loving? We say we’ll do that… but do we?!
Keep taking those steps forward, you’re making good progress. And, let’s acknowledge all of us have a long way to go.
Oh, and as for the song “Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison, I posted a video above that plays the song with his album cover. That’s because I couldn’t find a music video or concert video that didn’t seriously gross me out with him following a woman down the street and/or bizarre cuts to a close-up of a woman staring at him during a concert. Those are out in videoland, if you’re so inclined.
But you might be making a big mistake.
Big.
Huge!
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Glad you’re here today, Dear Reader. God’s peace and good movies to you!