What Women Want [Region 2] | Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt | Why movies could be too long ...

What Women Want [Region 2] | Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt | Could and should be better.

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What Women Want [R...

	What Women Want [Region 2] Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt average customer review:based on 235 reviews view larger image
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It must've made for a great pitch meeting: Male chauvinist advertising executive gains the ability to hear the thoughts of any woman around him. Add Mel Gibson--as Nick, the divorced "man's man" who can charm almost any woman into bed--and you've got high-concept comedy made in Hollywood heaven, right? Not necessarily. The smartest thing director Nancy Meyers did with What Women Want is dispose of this ludicrous plot contrivance before it wears out its welcome. It's fun to see Mel react to a deafening chorus of female thoughts, but his dubious "gift"--courtesy of an accidental electro-shock in his bathtub--is a mixed blessing for the audience. The women in Nick's life conveniently think in complete sitcom-friendly sentences, and the novelty quickly wears thin.

The movie improves by focusing on the fallout of Nick's predicament. Exploiting his unfair advantage, he sabotages the career of his new boss (Helen Hunt) even as he's falling in love with her; says all the right things to the aspiring actress (Marisa Tomei) who previously spurned his advances; and uses mind reading to curry favor with his 15-year-old daughter (Ashley Johnson). This two-faced scheming isn't malicious, however, and What Women Want is blessed by Gibson's amiably nuanced performance. His graceful riff on Fred Astaire is a dazzling surprise, and as Nick reforms, Gibson takes major credit for whatever depth this movie achieves. After a bit of nonsense, What Women Want has a lot to say about male and female behavior, be it noble or unappealing. It's both amusing and truthful, and that's almost as fun as a glimpse into someone else's brain. --Jeff Shannon

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Why movies could be too long ...

The movie starts a little emotional. Nick (Mel Gibson) is so arrogant that he doesn't even notice, what people around him happen to think about him. When Darcy (Helen Hunt) is promoted as his boss, his philosophy of life crumbles ... From this point, the movie makes a very enjoyable comedy. The audience is delivered quite a good insight into his moral -- compared to his workmates, who are astonished, what a man Nick actually can be. Yet, as soon as he falls in love with Darcy, the whole film is drawn slowly but irresistibly towards a drama losing much of its potential. It seems that Nancy Meyers tried to combine the funny plot with an appealing drama. Unfortunately, the movie just can't cope with such a claim. The performances of Gibson and Hunt are remarkable. Particularly the scene he plays Fred Astaire in, made me laugh heartily. Altogether, I give this movie 8 of 10 points, since it _is_ worth watching. But the second half could have been either cut or improved !

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Could and should be better.

Romantic comedy in which Mel Gibson stars as a chauvinistic advertising executive who one day after a freak accident finds that he can hear women's thoughts, and uses this to his advantage, not least of all in the workplace. An intriguing premise that makes a lot of its comic potential but I felt that more could have been done with the idea and the ending is a big let-down. Could and should be better.

Review by a Guy who subscribes to the Alphabet of Manliness

First, the bad things: formulaic chick flic. Make that CHICK FLIC. The other bad thing, is Helen Hunt is as dry and unappealing as always (she sleepwalks through her performance, I'm not sure she ever felt pain at all when she was "acting" emotionally distraught). In addition, there aren't enough laughs to keep a guy interested when his girlfriend/wife makes him watch this. In addition, the "thoughts" that women have in the movie are both far too PG and PC to be believable, and any man who swallows that crap is doomed. This is what women would like to think of themselves thinking, not what they really think about most of the time (not that I would know, which is the point, right?). Alan Alda smarms his way through another role where he can't stop calling attention to the fact that he is Alan Alda. Would someone take up a collection for some acting classes for this lame-O, please?
The good things: Mel Gibson gives a stunning performance as a man's man advertising executive who must reinvent himself as a meterosexual when his new boss arrives (Hunt) and starts dropping the Swedish Bikini Team advertising techniques to go after women-customer target accounts. This is delightful tension and a delightful plot twist.
Director Nancy Meyers does a superb job, both in framing shots and making the visual narrative match the script and tone setting of the dialogue. There is some flavor of Chicago in the film which adds to the aura.
But the best thing Meyers did, other than her mistakes with Alan Alda and Helen Hunt, is the casting. All the secondary women characters have real women's bodies, not the faux emaciated size zero everyone has defaulted to expect in films nowadays. For example, Delta Burke is featured in a role where her curves are simply normal both in relative and absolute terms to all other women characters. This was an excellent decision, and Meyers is amply rewarded with excellent performances from cameo and secondary characters alike. No one need ever fear that this film will promote body type anxiety.
The movie is a bit overly long, and therefore the rather abrupt closure of the film appears a bit tacked on in response to going over budget or beyond shooting schedule. But all in all this is a stomachable film for those guys who have to sit through a chick flic every now and them with your slampiece. My wife had to watch "Scareface" with me in exchange, so it was a pretty good trade.

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