What Women Want Review
by Shannon Patrick Sullivan (shannon AT morgan DOT ucs DOT mun DOT ca)January 15th, 2001
WHAT WOMEN WANT (2000) / **
Directed by Nancy Meyers. Screenplay by Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa, from a story by Goldsmith, Yuspa and Diane Drake. Starring Mel Gibson, Helen Hunter, Marisa Tomei. Running time: 128 minutes. Rated PG by the MFCB. Reviewed on January 7th, 2001.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
"What Women Want" is a classic example of writers conceiving an interesting idea, and then sitting back and putting no effort into developing an equally worthy script to go along with it. The result is a promising core let down by hopelessly routine execution, a movie which could have been a superior comedy but instead will likely fade quickly from the collective memory. The few moments which are borne of genuine inspiration simply serve as reminders of what could have been, with just a little extra work.
Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is a chauvinistic ad executive, a man who sees the opposite sex purely in terms of sexual conquests and menial servitude. To his horror, Nick is passed over for a promotion in favour of a woman: Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt), who has been brought in to help the company capture accounts for female-oriented products, a highly profitable sector. Then, one night, a drunk Nick accidentally electrocutes himself in his bathtub. Instead of dying, however, he awakens the next morning to discover that he can hear women's thoughts.
Nick is first horrified by his newfound ability, but gradually comes to appreciate the possibilities it offers. Nick begins using his power to poach ad ideas from Darcy's mind so he can pass them off as his own, in an effort to reinforce his position as the agency's number one designer. At the same time, though, Nick finds himself falling in love with Darcy, forcing him to make a pivotal choice between his emotions and his career.
All of this starts out well enough, Nick's initial glimpses into women's minds often proving hilarious. Particularly good is Nick's gradual discovery of just how overinflated is his understanding of how the women in his life perceive him. In one terrific scene, Nick walks through his office, being mentally whipped by his coworkers left and right -- and when he finally encounters his two most trusted office lackeys (Delta Burke and Valerie Perrine), he discovers that they don't think anything at all.
But things begin to slide downhill from there. Apart from the main Darcy McGuire storyline, the movie also introduces a number of other subplots, most of which simply seem to exist to kill time. One, in which delinquent dad Nick tries to make up for lost time with his daughter (Ashley Johnson), is amusing if rather predictable. Another, about a suicidal office clerk (Judy Greer) is shameless in its execution -- it's clearly present just to show us how much Nick's behaviour toward women improves as he makes use of his mindreading ability. It's the type of story element which reappears as needed, and is otherwise ignored completely.
But most frustrating are the sequences featuring Marisa Tomei as Lola, a coffee shop worker infatuated with Nick. After it claims considerable screentime in the movie's first half, it appears that screenwriters Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa (working from a story they developed with Diane Drake) simply ran out of ideas for the Nick/Lola romance. Moreover, its development seems to run counter to the burgeoning Nick/Darcy romance. As a result, Lola is summarily dumped from the film, exiting in an abrupt scene which strains at the bounds of disbelief.
And this is all the more disappointing because Gibson and Tomei demonstrate far more on-screen chemistry than Gibson and Hunt. One of the movie's most serious flaws is that it never successfully make the case that Nick and Darcy are meant to be together; their relationship is never more than an artifice of the script. Indeed, the movie offers far more persuasive arguments for them to be adversaries instead of friends (let alone lovers). The interaction between Nick and Lola, on the other hand, is far more charming. I found myself longing for Tomei's return during the interminable Gibson/Hunt scenes which take up much of the film's second half.
That said, both principals do good work here, even if their pairing is less than successful. In particular, Gibson, who has always shown a knack for comedy even in his more action-oriented pictures, is clearly having a lot of fun. His misogyny at the start of the film is deliciously politically incorrect, and his reactions to the thoughts of the women around him are nicely portrayed. For instance, a scene in which Nick learns that his lovemaking technique has nowhere near the effect he believed is hilarious -- topped only by the way he then compensates for his deficiencies.
Much like the script, the direction from Nancy Meyers is a mostly routine contribution dotted with more impressive moments. In one nice shot of Nick and Darcy kissing, Meyers uses a close-up so extreme that Gibson and Hunt -- their profiles in shadow against the dimly-lit set -- seem to consume the screen. We are enveloped in their embrace. But Meyers also drops the ball more than once, particularly with an inexplicable scene toward the end of the movie which wraps up the matter of Nick's mind-reading ability. Meyers also does a poor job of maintaining the pace of the film, and the result is a picture which feels very long at two hours and eight minutes.
As for the promise of insight into the feminine psyche offered by the title, it is sadly not to be. "What Women Want" really doesn't say anything more about the desires of the fairer sex than any one of a hundred other romantic comedies. Of course, based on the box office take of this film (well over US$100 million as of this writing) and reported statistics of the female percentage of the audience (about 60%), part of the answer to the question of what they want may be "movies like this one". If that's the case, then this is further evidence that I don't really understand women. But, like most guys, I already knew that.
Copyright © 2001 Shannon Patrick Sullivan.
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_______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | [email protected] | are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde | \___________________________|__________________________________________/ | Popcorn Gallery Movie Reviews www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html | | Doctor Who: A Brief History of Time (Travel) /drwho.html |
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