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What Women Want | Year: 2000 Classification: Romance/Comedy Directed: - Nancy Meyers Actors/Actresses: - Alan Alda - Mel Gibson - Helen Hunt - Lauren Holly - Ashley Johnson - Marisa Tomei - Alan Alda Hopefully We All Want More Than This Mel Gibson is charming, and funny, but the film turns away from it's clever premise too early and opts for being a corny predictable mediocre romantic drama rather than an edgy comedy. The good news is, Mel Gibson is one heck of a likeable charismatic charming guy. He does a nice little throw-away dance number as sort of an homage to Fred Astaire (to Sinatra's Don't Dance). He also does a funny impression of Sean Connery. The funniest moments are mostly the one's you've seen in the commercials (they're a bit less polite in the film then they were in the commercial). There's a few other amusing ones and plenty of charm and likeable performances from Gibson, Helen Hunt, Alan Alda and Marisa (remember her?) Tomei. Delta Burke, Valerie Perrine and other actors you might recognize show up but are given very little to do. After setting up the characters like a high class sit-com with bigger stars, the best the writers can come up with is to have Mel Gibson's character nearly electrocute himself in the bathtub with a hair dryer and wake up several hours later with uncanny ability to hear what women are secretly thinking. The writers (Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa and Diane Drake get the credit) at first manage to keep the premise from being a bad 70's Disney Comedy in new clothing. They manage with Nancy Meyer's direction to construct some not quite predictable and amusing scenes which allow Mel Gibson to show off his comic timing. Helen Hunt has had a lot of practice reacting to goofy male hijinks in her t.v. series Mad About You and does a good job here reacting and playing off Mel Gibson. She shines in a few moments where she's got the laugh lines. The film drops most of its comedy at about the half-way point and becomes a straight romantic film. A predictable, corny, tired romantic film which offers no surprises, interesting twists or anything funny during it's last half hour. The only reason it stays afloat is because of the charm and charisma or the lead actors. But what do I know? It's doing well at the box-office, a lot of people will tell their friends it's a pretty good film with some very funny scenes in the beginning before it turns into a mushy corny film at the end. Awwwww mushy and corny ain't so bad is it? Well, no... there's nothing with some romance and even corniness in a film, but not one that starts out in a different direction and then decides that audiences really want a nice romantic film to go to over the holiday season so we'll play everything as safe and predictable as a t.v. sit-com that suddenly gets serious to deliver a message about doing the right thing and telling the truth. I hope women (and men too) want more from their movies than this one delivers. I sure do. Let me suggest a far better romantic comedy which is not as boring and predictable as this high concept comedy is. It's still in theaters and its called Chocolat. (Check out my review of it if you want). Oh and Definitely What I Want Now here's a great movie. You got Mel Gibson playing a chauvanistic ad executive whose only primary goal in life is to get ahead in the business world, be a mediocre father, and nail every woman he possible can. Doesn't sound that appealing actually, does it? But alas, it makes for a brilliantly funny movie. Gibson plays Nick, who lives each day to his Frank Sinatra records. He's crude and brash, but those baby blues are hard to resist. When he thinks he's about to be promoted, he learns that his boss hired a woman named Darcy (played by Helen Hunt)for the job he desperately wanted. The first thing she does is assign a fun project for all her fellow advertisers-- try out several women's products (mascara, lipstick) and come up with a tag line for them. Nick is, of course, totally annoyed, but he does it anyway, falling in the bathtub after slipping on little bath pearls and electrocuting himself with a hair dryer. And BAM! He can suddenly hear what women think. What he at first sees as a curse, a therapist (played by a funny Bette Midler) tells him he's got a power most men dream of-- he knows what women want! So the story unfolds with Nick learning about the women in his life and even having an actual relationship with Darcy. This movie is funny and smart, and I never pictured Gibson in this role, although he fits it like a glove. The best kind of movie is the one where you actually believe the actors to be the people they're playing. Gibson has that effect nailed. The movie could have, however, done without the romance actually. Yes, perhaps that's odd of me to say considering that many people will class this movie as a romantic comedy. It would have been just fine with Nick learning about himself and seeing what exactly he could do to make the women around him feel less offended. Bottom line-- this movie is definitely worth seeing. I recommend it to any man who doesn't know what women want at all to perhaps get a few pointers from a fellow clueless man. And those baby blues of Gibson's will have women swooning. It's well done, well directed, well acted, and well played out. See this one! Thats the Mel I like! This movie is incredibly funny. Mel Gibson went from a macho pig to a metrosexual in all of 30 minutes ;) Aside from the great music and wonderful cast, this movie is pretty family friendly and great for all those guys who want to know what women really want. Heres a hint guys...They want you to listen to them! 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