So there I was sitting through the first ten minutes of the 2000 Nancy Meyers comedy What Women Want and of course my whacky mind started drifting, as it often does while watching the first ten minutes of a movie with an implausible plot that surely would seem great fun to be part of in real life (like Freaky Friday or The Shaggy DA or a dozen other early Disney live action movies now that I think even more on it). Either way, I started wondering what it would be like to have the same ability that our “hero” has in this movie, where he can hear the thoughts of the women around him. I think it would fundamentally crush me. Yes. Absolutely. But that’s my already fragile ego curled up in the corner blubbering about its insecurities again. He’s a real downer at parties.
Anyway. What Women Want stars Mel Gibson as Nick Marshall, an ad guy living in Chicago at the top of his game so to speak. He’s divorced but a huge “ladies man” in the circles he populates, a bit of a chauvinist but good looking and charming enough that he does well luring women to his bed. At work, where he’s eyeing a big promotion, he’s admired by the men while the women seem to flock. He’s also divorced and estranged from his 15-year-old daughter Alex (Ashley Johnson), who, as these things go, needs to move in for a bit while mom heads off on her new honeymoon.
Meanwhile, the promotion thing doesn’t pan out like he expects, his boss (Alan Alda), deciding to get a stronger women’s perspective on things, bringing in the talented Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt), who becomes the team’s creative director. Nick doesn’t take it so well, instead of jumping on board and trying to help the company, scheming to wreck her agenda and steal the position he things he deserves. But fate’s got a different plan. One night while working on an ad campaign designed to inspire more women to buy female-oriented products, he tries on some pantyhose, wears some lipstick, and other “lady” things, and then slips in the bathroom and shocks himself with a hairdryer and water from the tub. Naturally, this concusses him and he ends up in the emergency room. I mean, it imbues him with the power of mindreading, obviously (no, not obviously so don’t try this at home like you know, um, my friend did). But hold on there, not just read minds, exclusively the minds of women he comes in contact with. Cool! No way this can’t go wrong.
It goes wrong.
Well, not right away. This is just the thing Nick needs for seducing girls, including Lola (Marisa Tomei), the insecure but cute coffee shop barista with a huge crush on Nick. He sees plenty of opportunities with this women to say the right things in getting her to bed. That’s the dream (or the plot of an 80s teen sex comedy). However, she’s an anomaly, mostly because she doesn’t really know him. At work, where every women does know about Nick, he’s not the man he thinks he is, woman after woman in their minds eviscerating him at every chance while smiling on the outside and saying the nicest things. It surprises him, but whatever, he’s got a plan in Darcy, so uses his new powers to ingratiate himself with these office gals and use Darcy’s thoughts on work against her to make it appear as if he were the one with the big ideas. No way this can’t go wrong. Did I say that already?
And then blah blah blah, he learns a lesson and happily ever after.
Okay, so, good things. Meyers has a tough job on her hands, trying to make an appealing “bad” guy out of Nick and keeping the women in the story strong and empowered while still serving up a story based on the male perspective. The screenplay is by three writers, one of whom is a man, and I have no doubt that this must have been a weird roundtable of brainstorming in getting to the central message, which is still a bit clouded. Meyers is a good storyteller though and while she has never sought to directly challenge the audience, her broad pokes at her targeted genre are usually good fun to watch. This one has oh so many points where it seems ready, but never strikes with the energy and impact it feels primed for.
What Women Want has, at its core, an undeniably catchy premise, but in seeking to keep it light, lacks the depth it might have had if it weren’t forced into comedy. Sure, the film tries to shoehorn in some drama in a character named Erin (Judy Greer) who is practically shunned at work and lives in a corrosive state of near suicidal depression, something Nick only notices once he has the powers to read her thoughts. The problem is, see, she’s broken not because of any authentic psychopathy, but because, you know, she has talent and was passed over by Nick a while back so instead of trying harder in a highly competitive market, she’s sad and spends her time silently complaining that she’s reduced to menial tasks for co-workers and bets they won’t notice when she’s gone. It’s a dreadful flop of an idea with an even worse solution (egads a magical Asian?!) in a movie that props itself up as romantic comedy, working only to use it as a way to make Nick a better person than actually build upon Erin. Ugh.
Then there’s poor Lola, a terrific character at the start who one would believe a perfectly wonderful person to get to know and share a relationship with, but because the plot needs Nick to be about the more successful Darcy, is almost literally tossed aside. Her role in the story is reduced only to one moment, where Nick realizes that he not a good sexual partner until he stops doing it for his own pleasure and listens to what she has to say in her mind while they are having sex. Theeeeeeennnn of course, he’s a god in bed, giving Lola the best time of her life. Oh, and after that, fully ignores her until the film has her run into him on the street and sort of reveal she a bit of an eccentric so clearly not a stable girl. Ugh.
I like Helen Hunt. She’s a unique presence on film and has this sort of haunting quality about her that I’ve always been drawn to in her performances. I remember I first saw her in a movie called Project X from 1987 with Matthew Broderick and a group of chimpanzees (it’s way better than it sounds) and I was floored by her dynamic mix of somberness and potent sexuality. She is, without a doubt, perfectly cast as the successful ad executive who has fought hard to reach her position in a business that surely never respected her entirely as an equal. Unfortunately, that’s not explored at all, instead offering us a wispy line or two about how she’s nervous on her first day (as read by Nick and his mind-reading powers) or that people aren’t seeing her as she really is. To be fair, it is his story and not hers. However, Nick doesn’t really read the thoughts we suspect are truly in this woman’s mind, instead, what we hear only really generically (is that a word?) related to propelling the plot forward in a most linear way (there’s a sequence with a woman jogging that better invites us into the mind of a woman). I never fully connected with her and wondered about how she reacts to some situations that would seem to make a person in her position do things she never does. Either way, as the movie is intent only on the obvious between she and Nick, this never feels all that grounded. But then again, there’s mind reading so, yeah.
Now, there is a lot of fun stuff too. The relationship between Nick and Alex is handled pretty well, and while the film doesn’t have a lot of time for it and sort of cobbles it together with a host of movie clichés, there is great chemistry between Gibson and the young Ashley Johnson. His growth with her is mostly honest with him actually listening to her thoughts constructively and putting into action ways that he can meaningfully grow to better support her and be the father she deserves. I mean, that could have been the whole movie right there. Also there’s a brief bit with Bette Midler, who gets the thankless task of the therapist in a scene that should have been smarter but instead justifies Nick’s powers and frankly encourages him to go forth and manipulate women. It’s framed like he should use it to make them happy but boy it seems like a shallow way to strip away the guilt and questionability of what Nick can do instead, pushing Midler and his conscious out of the way. Wouldn’t it have been fun for him to see the therapist often and deal with his actions on a therapeutic level. So much potential comedy there.
Gibson has always been strong mixing comedy and action, he a gifted physical actor that lands the laughs when needed while convincing as a dramatic lead. He’s right for the part and sells Nick as a lovable sort of cad that seems eager to make some changes for the right reasons, and if it take a bit of magic to do so, fine. At least he gets there. Does he deserve the supremely happy ending he gets. I don’t think so. The film is too light to not give it to him but, but I wish there had been more real emotional consequences for his actions, or at least something weighted that lingers on him as a reminder in the days and years to come.
I don’t want to say that What Women Want isn’t worth a watch, as mentioned there are some fun moments and genuine bits that feel right on target, including a small sequence where Gibson does a little dance in his house to a Sinatra song and a few strong exchanges between Nick and Darcy that work very well. It’s too bad the film didn’t explore some of the more hefty issues involved with being a woman perhaps that could have better enlightened Nick and the male audience (such as myself) while still being funny and ultimately worthy of earning a rewarding end instead of racing to its obvious final frames.