The Secret of My Success (1987)

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nDirector: Herbert Ross

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nCast: Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater, Richard Jordan

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nReview:

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nThe Secret of My Success was a huge hit in the 80’s becausenit came out during Michael J. Fox’s peak of fame. He’d done extensive televisionnwork on Family Ties, and just gotten off releasing Back to the Future (1985)nand Teen Wolf (1985), both of which were huge hits for him. The Secret of MynSuccess, proved to be one of Michael J. Fox’s most successful films outside ofnthe Back to the Future trilogy. Actually, at that time, anything that MichaelnJ. Fox did made money, because his popularity and career where just starting tontake off! I mean look at Teen Wolf a teen comedy that was a huge money maker. Itnonly cost 1.4 million and made 80 million! So yeah, Michael J. Fox was ridingnhi on the fame train, question is, where any of the films he was making worth andamn? Is The Secret of My Success a good one?
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nI’d say that yeah, it was a good one, I laughed, I gigglednand generally had a good time. I wanted to see something really 80’s for the 80’snBlog-a Thon thing, and I have to say this one is really, really 80’s! I mean, thenclothes, the hair, the music…it took me back, which is what I love aboutnwatching movies from a certain decade, I love it when films take a snapshot ofna certain moment in time. And in this particular moment in time, films aboutnpoor people suddenly becoming rich were extremely popular. a.k.a. ‘rags to riches’ stories.  For example filmsnlike Trading Places (1983), Protocol (1984) and Brewster’s Millions (1985) werenall films about poor dopes suddenly becoming filthy rich because of a twist ofnfate, or pure luck. The difference with The Secret of My Success is that it’snmain character, college graduate Bradley Foster doesn’t make it because ladynluck suddenly smiled on him, nope, Bradley Foster makes it to the big timenbecause of his own wits, his own smarts. I mean, yeah, true, he has an unclenthat’s a CEO of a big company, and his uncle gives him a job, but he ends upnworking in the Mail Room, with very low pay. He makes it to the big timenbecause of his enthusiasm, his energy and his ideas.

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nSo basically, this is a coming of age story. It’s a filmnabout a kid whose just gotten out of college and wants to leave his mom and dad’snfarm house in Kansas to make it big in New York City’s business world. He’sntaken it upon himself to beat New York, to not go back home crying to mama. He wants to make it big, to have anmeaningful relationship with a beautiful girl, a car, a private jet, basically, he wants it all and he wants to do it on his own, without having to screw anybody to get to the top. Butnof course, he’s a kid from Kansas, and now he’s in NYC, so it can also be seennas a fish out of water story, David vs. Goliath. The thing about Michael J. Fox’s character innThe Secret of My Success is that he adapts very well to living amongst skynscrapers and working amongst “the suits”. This is also one of those films where the main character adopts a secondnpersonality so he can achieve his goals, and has to later, by the end of thenfilm tell everyone the truth.
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nThe Secret of My Success is one of the many films that camenout during the 80’s that dealt with the corporate business lifestyle and itsneffects on society. It’s no secret that the 80’s were known as the decade ofndecadence, excess and self centered individuals making tons of money andnspending it, the quintessential ’yuppies’ that were later so perfectly depictednin Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000). It was a decade of economic abundance,na decade in which Reaganomics brought unemployment rates and poverty  down. Economy wise, United States was doing good. The flood gates to bignbusiness were opened wide. Back then films depicted greed as being…”for lack ofna better word…good” to quote Michael Douglas’s character in Wall Street (1987)na film that mirrors perfectly the kind of mentality that permeated during thisndecade, in fact, Wall Street can be see as a more dramatic and seriousnversion of The Secret of My Success. Other films of the 80’s that explored thencorporate lifestyle were Baby Boom (1987) and Working Girl (1988). In the casenof Baby Boom we get a film that tries to humanize the selfish yuppie by havingnthe yuppie (played by Diane Keaton) inherit a baby from a distant recentlyndeceased relative, she has to learn to accomodate her life, learn that what really matters in life is not money. Working Girl can be seen as a female version of The Secretnof My Success, it’s also about a working class woman who pretends to be someonenshe isn’t in order to get ahead in the corporate world. So as we can see, thesentypes of films were proliferating during the 80’s because they are a reflectionnof the era.
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nThe Secret of My Success has survivednthis long because it’s what I call a “quintessential 80’s film” and because itnstars Michael J. Fox who exploited his sweet natured, good boy persona. The filmnalso gets surprisingly romantic, Michael J. Fox’s character, Bradley Fosternfalls in love with this working girl played by none other than the ultranbeautiful Helen Slater. I kept cracking my head trying to figure out where I’dnseen her before, then it dawned on me, it’s Supergirl (1984)! It’s really funnynhow in some scenes (especially those where they kiss) Helen Slater looks like antowering sky scraper next to Fox! The soundtrack is extremely 80’s, it hasntunes from many 80’s staples such as Pat Benatar, Bananarama and Night Ranger, whonby the way sing the theme song “The Secret of My Success”, which I remembernsounded quite a bit on the airwaves.  Atnthe end of the day, The Secret of My Success is a fun film, most of the funncomes from Michael J. Fox’s character leading a double life, trying to hide thenfact that he is passing himself off as one of “the suits” when he is reallynjust an employee from the mailing room; the idea being that if you believenyourself to be something, you can eventually become that thing which you wantnto become, an idea I’ve experienced to be true. Plus the film has something of an innocense to it, even if it can also be categorized as an 80’s sex comedy. When we get down to it, The Secret of My Success is a multilayered film that spans quite a few genres, it’s a comedy, it’s a romantic film, it’s a drama, it’s a sex comedy, a coming of age story, a fish out of water story and it is also a truly 80’s film, so if you’re feeling nostalgic about the decade, this one comes highly recommended. 

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nRating:  4 out of 5
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