The Associate (1996)

Women's lib would really go for this 1996 film about a woman who loses a promotion to her fellow worker despite her better experience and seniority.Since she will now be a subordinate to this guy, she quits and forms her own investment group. She is aided by a very frumpy Dianne Wiest.When she can't get anywhere due to her sex, she invents a male partner to get her ideas accepted.The film is a funny one and when Whoopi is forced to "produce" this partner, she gets a costume with the white face of a Marlon Brando mixed with a Thomas Jefferson profile and hair-do. That part is really hilarious.Of course, there is more fun ahead when Whoopi is accused of killing this partner and Wiest is accused of being an accessory to murder.With all this, the film is highly predictable but go enjoy it anyway.

1st watched 5/9/2007 - 4 out of 10(Dir-Donald Petrie): OK comedy drama with Whoopi Goldberg playing a character reminiscent of the Robin Williams man to woman transformation character, Mrs. Doubtfire, but opposite, of course. Whoopi's character is a wall street investment associate in a firm where the men usually rule the roost. She is up for a promotion to Vice President, but loses it to her partner, primarily because he's a man who knows how to play to the higher-ups wim's. She quits and starts her own investment firm and invents an elderly white male partner named Robert S. Cutter and starts becoming very successful despite the fact that the companies never meet the illustrious Mr. Cutter, but instead Whoopi does all the work, and he's always traveling around the world and never available. Eventually, Cutter has to show himself and what we get is Whoopi in a pretty amazing transformation done by her cross-dressing friend. The transformation is so well done that it's hard to tell that it's Whoopi behind the wig, mask and the rounded-out body. The transformation isn't the problem in this movie, it's just that it has very few opportunities for Whoopi's comedic talents to come thru. Dianne Weist is actually very good in a supporting role as Whoopi's mega-talented secretary and Whoopi isn't bad in her performance with what she's given but the screenplay is very flat and un-inspired. This could have been a good expose on women in this field and how they're unable to penetrate the upper ranks but it doesn't come across that it has any desire to be much of anything which is very disappointing. I'd love to see Goldberg & Weist together again in a better film -- so maybe this will happen someday.

I thought "The Associate" was a great film dealing with one of the major problems of today's society : judging everything and everyone on the way it looks instead of what it is. In this case : she is (and looks like) a woman, and therefor she must be inferior to men. The acting was very, very good, but that's what we're used to see from such people as Whoopy Goldberg, Diane Wiest, Eli Wallach, and so on. Then why am I only giving a vote of 8 ? Because of the final scene! The whole film was, though in every way a comedy, very realistic, but that last bit was completely over the top and utterly unbelievable. This is, in my view, one of the big flaws of American films : they just MUST HAVE a happy ending, no matter how far fetched it may be. Nevertheless a film worth seeing and seeing again.

I gave this movie a 10 not because it's perfect, not because it's the best movie I've seen, but because the way it made me feel when I watched it. I love Whoopi and she does a great job in this movie, as she does on any other movie she made. Her personality just shines. I used to think that "actors" can really learn any role and they can be whoever they were needed to be. But Whoopi fits this role perfectly. I couldn't have thought of a better actress to fit the character.The movie is funny. The bad guy always gets it and it has a happy ending. Sounds a bit cliché, but isn't that how we all want it to end? This is a perfect screening for the stay-at-home moms or housewives.