TRICIA BEHLE -- Reel Critic

If you are in the mood for a movie that will make you laugh and that

you don’t have to think about, you may enjoy “What Women Want.” It isn’t

a great film, but a piece of Hollywood fluff that has funny scenes and

lines. Go and be amused. Just don’t go expecting a work of art.

Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson, oozing charm) is a successful ad executive

who is described as a “man’s man.” He is either obliviously callous or a

slimy flirt with women and believes he is adored by all the women in his

life. Then a freak electrocution gives Nick the ability to hear what

women are thinking. He quickly learns most of the women who know him

think he’s a jerk.

Nick uses his new ability to manipulate various women. On the positive

side, he tries to fix his fractured relationship with his daughter

(Ashley Johnson). However, he also sabotages Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt),

the advertising hotshot who just got the position of creative director

that Nick coveted. He steals her ideas and makes her look bad with the

head of their ad agency (Alan Alda).

The film believes that what women want is for men to really listen to

them. Nick’s accident makes it so he can’t help but really listen to

women, for the first time in his life. As he is forced to hear women’s

thoughts, he begins to change how he interacts with them. “What Women

Want” also believes the daytime talk show truism that if men were more in

touch with their feminine side, they would be better people. This belief

guides how the rest of the film plays out.

The film is hindered by weak direction. Director Nancy Meyers often

loses the focus of the plot. She could easily have edited out an

unnecessary subplot about a mousy file clerk at the ad agency who seems

tacked on to allow Nick to be a good guy. There is also a subplot

involving Lola (Marisa Tomei), a neurotic coffeehouse clerk attracted to

Nick. It provides some funny scenes, but also makes Nick’s character more

despicable. Better direction might have made the Lola subplot flow better

with the rest of the film. Instead, Lola’s desperation and unhappiness

are almost too jarring and upsetting to be in a comedy.

“What Women Want” feels like a film about advertising executives, put

together by advertising executives, in order to prominently display their

clients’ products in a major motion picture (Nike, Apple, etc. are highly

visible). “What Women Want” has many laughs but also feels a bit

formulaic and contrived.

* TRICIA BEHLE, 31, lives in Newport Beach and works as a software

validator.