Product Details

• Actors: Whoopi Goldberg, Dianne Wiest, Eli Wallach, Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth
• Directors: Donald Petrie
• Writers: Nick Thiel
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Walt Disney Video
• DVD Release Date: July 20, 1999
• Run Time: 114 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305428344
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,506 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Associate" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Whoopi Goldberg (SISTER ACT I & II, EDDIE) handles business her own way in this outrageous comedy hit! Whoopi plays a fast-track executive who starts her own company after a back-stabbing co-worker (Tim Daly, TV's WINGS) nabs her promotion. But when she's locked out of the stuffy corporate world, she invents a dazzling male business partner to sell her ideas! Her wacky plan soon spins wildly out of control, however, when her bogus "associate" becomes Wall Street's hottest financial whiz -- and Whoopi herself must impersonate him! With Dianne Wiest (THE BIRDCAGE) in a hilarious supporting cast, THE ASSOCIATE is a comedy treat you're sure to love!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Light-Hearted Movie about a Woman in a Man's World., February 12, 2005

By 

Mark "Technology, Music and Movies" (East Coast) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)   

This review is from: The Associate (DVD)

A Fun Light-Hearted Movie about a Woman in a Man's World. That one sentence sums up the Associate, with Whoppi Goldberg playing a woman trying to break the glass ceiling in the world of high-finance.

Whoppi does a good job playing Laurel Ayers, a woman who has been passed over too many times. When she sets out on her own, she can't get clients until she creates a partnership with a fictional male, Mr. Cutty. While she experiences success, it is bittersweet because her fictional male partner is seen as the brains of the organization. In the end, she goes to drastic measures to make the world see that she is the one who deserves the credit for her ideas.

This movie is a lot of fun to watch. It's true, you can watch it many times over, especially if you love the world of finance and enjoyed movies like "Trading Places."

The movie also has a real message, which is the prejudice that prevents women from sometimes getting the credit they deserve. It's been 10 years since this movie was made. One would hope that the business world had changed since then, and it has in some ways. But, some of the painful neglect she suffers in the movie still rings true.

While this is a good fun movie, it is not a masterpiece of film. It's a fun movie to watch if you don't want to think too much and if you like cliche's about the "old-boys club." Some of the plot gets just a little too silly towards the end, as her elaborate ruse unravels. I think they could have given the audience a little more to chew on with a more believable portrayal.

Still, it's worth a watch. Buy it, watch it, enjoy it!

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most under-rated movie of all time! It's simply the best!, October 28, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Associate [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie got iffy reviews when it came out, much to my shock and dismay. I didn't see it until it came out on video and was astonished that it had been so under-rated for so long. This is a fantastic, hilarious comedy with a wonderful script of surprises, empowerment, and that really "complete" feeling you get after watching a classic. Whoopi is excellent in this role, and it will make everyone feel great. People who really know what good writing and acting are will love this movie, unlike the one negative reviewer below. He obviously didn't see the same movie we all watched. The plot is tight, the characters ring true, and the ending is perfect and succinct. This is not the run-of-the-mill Hollywood film, which is perhaps why it didn't blow away the box office. If you like rehashed scripts, such as the kind that are created by Tim Robbin's studio executive-role via the movie, "The Player," and the kind of movies that keep teens paying $8 just for "something to do" on a Friday night, then you probably won't like this movie. It is definitely no, "Dude, Where's my car" or "Lethal Weapon 4" etc. It's thoughtful, and it's unlike anything else in Hollywood, as it portrays women in a very positive light, and does not attach their main defining characteristics with sex. This movie does have sex in it, however, and an accurate portrayal of the roles men and women actually occupy in the U.S.A., especially in business. Women who watch it are the best judges of this, since we all live this kind of life and see this kind of thing very frequently. If you want to see an original film, and you're in the video store thinking, "I'm so sick of this and that and this and that, I want something DIFFERENT and interesting," then I'd definitely rent this video. Better yet, buy it. Everyone who I've shown it to now owns it, including my male friends (and boyfriend). Women will love it, and good guys who don't treat women in the way some of the male characters in this movie do, will also love it. It's just plain good.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Movie, February 15, 2003

By 

J. M. Zuurbier (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Associate (DVD)

Whoopi Goldberg stars in THE ASSOCIATE, a humorous movie about the stock market and a woman finding her way. She plays Laurel Ayers, a stock broker who is promised a promotion. When her co worker takes her promotion right from under her, she is determined to make it on her own. She quits and starts her own company. To her dismay she finds out that it's not easy making it in the world as a woman, doors are constantly slammed in her face because of her gender, so she sets out to take the world over by storm, by creating a fictional person, Robert Cutty. Yes she creates a man and even dresses up as one. Cutty takes the world by storm, but Laurel has to keep up with her charade. Eventually she realizes that Cutty has been nothing but trouble for her, no one cares about what SHE has been doing, and a man is still getting all the credit for her ideas. So she sets out to kill a fictional man that doesn't exist! She realizes she is no better than she was, because Cutty is getting credit for all her work and ideas. ...Overall a really humorous and well acted film, worth seeing many times.