What Women Want

What women want is very simple: A man willing to listen when they’re speaking to him. They also want a lot of other things, but let’s start with that. This we learn from “What Women Want,” a 2000 comedy about a man who is hit by lightning and is able to read women’s minds.

You would think this ability would make him the world’s greatest lover, since he would know exactly what to do and when to do it, and yes, the movie’s protagonist does succeed in that area, but not without early discouragements. (Roger Ebert said in his review, “Extreme detumescence can result when a man discovers that during the throes of passion his lover is asking herself, "Is Britney Spears on Leno tonight?"”) Mel Gibson plays Nick Marshall, an ad executive who thinks he will land a higher job at his Chicago agency. However, his boss (Alan Alda) passes him over for Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt), a beautiful woman from another agency. Nick decides to get payback around the same time he gets his ability to read women’s minds. His trick to stealing Darcy’s best ideas is a dirty trick, but he’s ambitious and shameless.

He is also a man who needs to listen to women more. We find out he was raised in Las Vegas as the spoiled child of a showgirl, and has been adored on by attractive females ever since – including, recently, the beautiful Lola, played by Marisa Tomei, who works in the coffee shop he supports. At work, two assistants, played by Valerie Perrine and Delta Burke, approve categorically of everything he does, but reading their minds shows they never think about this. Many of the other women in the office, he is scared to find out, pretend to like him but don’t.

Ebert noted, “Because he feels chastened, and because he wants to win a valuable advertising account, Nick starts a crash program to research being a woman. This leads him to experiment with lip gloss, eye shadow, pantyhose and defoliation, in scenes positioned somewhere between "Tootsie" and Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Junior." Amazingly, given the opportunities, Gibson, who's the king of the tush scenes, keeps his netherlands out of view during these adventures.”

Ebert continued, “It's clear that Nick and Darcy will sooner or later fall in love, I suppose, and that's a cinematic first: Although Gibson has been voted the World's Sexiest Man in one of those meaningless magazine polls, this is his first romantic comedy since "Bird on a Wire" (1990). He and Hunt are not a match made in heaven, but that's one of the appeals as they edge closer together.” Less pleasing is the way he breaks up with poor Lola, who really deserves better.

Ebert mentioned, “The movie, written and directed by Nancy Meyers, doesn't flow so much as leap from one good scene to another over the crevices of flat scenes in between. The movie is considerably slowed down by the unnecessary character of a suicidal file clerk, who does nothing of any interest until late in the movie, when Nick befriends her in a scene that serves no purpose, except to delay us on our way to the happy climax, which can be seen signaling eagerly from the next reel.”

If the movie is flawed, it’s not boring and is often very funny, like the solo dance that Nick does in his apartment to Frank Sinatra singing I Won’t Dance. Ebert mentioned, “This is, we imagine, the way the Tom Cruise character in "Risky Business" might have ended some of his evenings if he had grown up to be Nick Marshall. I also liked the way Gibson handled the sex scene, where his look of joy and complete self-satisfaction at the end is equaled only by Jack Nicholson's famous Triumph T-shirt moment in "Five Easy Pieces."” Note: The look and feel of the movie is just right. The set for the ad agency’s office is pleasing and seems comfortable. Ebert ended by his review by saying, “Inspired by Chicago's 19th century Monadnock Building, it looks plausible as an ad agency headquarters and allows sight lines that are important to the action. Great work by production designer Jon Hutman, set decorator Rosemary Brandenburg and art directors Gae Buckley and Tony Fanning, and if you wonder why I list their names, you'll know when you see their work.”

I had seen parts of this a long time ago, but then I saw the entire movie while exercising. This is a really funny movie that I think everyone should see. I remember my dad saw that I was watching the movie on TV and when he saw the part when Mel Gibson discovered that he could read women’s minds, he told me that, despite this being rated PG-13, it may not be appropriate for me to watch. Granted, I was old enough to watch it, but he didn’t think that I should see it after hearing the thoughts. However, I rented it from the library a few years back and saw it entirely, but I didn’t see what my dad was talking about. All of that aside, this is a funny movie that I think everyone will get a good kick out of. Check it out and have a great time laughing at it.

Look out next week when I look at another comedy in “Marisa Tomei Month.”