Pretty Woman survives endless rewatches because, beneath the polish, it’s gloriously imperfect. The film we know as a dreamy Cinderella story began as a dark drama about class, addiction, and exploitation, titled 3,000. Disney’s takeover scrubbed the grit, softened the edges, and rebuilt it as a fairy tale, even as tiny cracks kept slipping through: croissants mutating into pancakes, shoes and money appearing and disappearing, condoms that can’t stay in the same order twice. Those mistakes now feel like fingerprints of a messier, more human movie struggling to breathe under the fantasy.

Off camera, the story was just as fragile. Al Pacino almost took the lead, Richard Gere disliked his “empty suit” character, and the most iconic laugh in the film came from a prank with a snapping jewelry box meant only for the gag reel. Yet chemistry between Gere and Julia Roberts — instant, unforced, and real — kept pulling everything back into place. Maybe that’s why we forgive every continuity error: the illusion may be flawed, but the connection never was.