The only unambiguous bedroom scene is placed near the end of the film, after Vivian and Edward have fallen in love and been redeemed by each other. Significantly, this sequence begins as Vivian wakes up the snoozing Edward with a kiss. Marshall once likened Pretty Woman to Rapunzel, and Vivian’s friend Kit (Laura San Giacomo) namechecks “Cinde-fuckin’-rella”, but at this point the film is a gender-swapped Sleeping Beauty. Whichever fairy tale you choose, though, it is definitely a fairy tale – and that means that its prince and princess can’t convey any passion until we know that they are going to live happily after.
As contrived as all the coyness may be, you have to respect how cleverly Marshall and his team pulled off a feat which should have been impossible. They cast America’s sweetheart as a prostitute alongside the actor who played a male escort in American Gigolo. And yet the resulting film was produced by Walt Disney, and it was a box-office smash during the era of Aids panic and Reagan-Bush conservatism. What’s more, its influence still lingers. Both Twilight (featuring another Edward) and its unauthorised spin-off, Fifty Shades of Grey (featuring another high-finance tycoon) take brief tourist trips to steamy and transgressive territory, then run back to the socially sanctioned security of abstinence, commitment, and very wealthy men. They do what Pretty Woman did, which is to let the viewer have their room-service strawberries and eat them, too. We get the titillating naughtiness of an Amazon in thigh-high boots boasting that she will do anything a man desires. But we also get the reassurance that, deep down, the characters’ connection is more spiritual than physical. Vivian talks a lot about safe sex, and that’s what Pretty Woman is selling: sex which is utterly safe.
Love film? Join BBC Culture Film Club on Facebook, a community for film fanatics all over the world.
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.
And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.