Review

What Women Want

What Women Want

Director
Nancy Meyers
Year
2000
Rating
3 stars
Reviewed by
Gon Curiel a.k.a. Groucho
Review date
Saturday, January 27, 2001

One of the funniest films of the year, What Women Want is a simply irresistible Mel Gibson vehicle that puts him in what is probably the most charming role he has ever played (talk about a bold statement!). As Nick Marshall, he portrays a man who has nearly no worries in his life, feeling so self assured about everything that he simply can’t contemplate the possibility of anything going wrong. One day, a woman (Helen Hunt) endangers his job and he begins to worry. His main problem is that he can’t understand women. Later, after an accident, he begins to actually hear women’s thoughts, and that’s when he realizes how wrong he really is, and how different the world looks from the female eyes.

Gisbon, as I said, is excellent; so is Marisa Tomei as Lola, the coffee shop waitress who wants a healthy relationship more than anything else. Helen Hunt is good too as the woman who changes Marshall’s life.

The best thing about the movie is the way it is carried through, making a completely unbelievable premise pretty believable, considering the silly explanation they give to the situation. Gibson is so natural, it is easy to follow him through his weird adventure. The whole film is choreographed in a perfect way, balancing women’s thoughts and the characters’ dialogs, without much complication.

The second half makes the film a bit tiring, due to the dramatic turns, but there is always a spark of pure comedy that saves the day. Even the overlength is forgiven after a couple of top-belly laughs. I’m talking about real fun scenes, including the best of the film (the last one with adorable Tomei).

The soundtrack is also pretty good, featuring quite effective songs all the time, especially Christina Aguilera’s “What a girl wants” during the shopping sequence with Nick’s daughter (Ashley Johnson).

A must for Gibson’s fans and comedy-drama lovers.

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Comments

Get your permanent avatar at Gravatar.com Morris wrote at 6/22/2002:

Couldn't agree more with you! It is a very funny movie. Gibson is at his best. Marisa Tomei is extremelly funny in all of her scenes. Helen Hunt is good. The songs are great (also liked "Bitch" and Sinatra's "Under My Skin"). There are kind of slow subplots at the end that don't really work. But overall, it is funny, funny, funny!

Get your permanent avatar at Gravatar.com Jacinda wrote at 6/22/2002:

Finally I had a chance to rent the dvd edition and it was worth waiting for. I thought the movie was 100% comedy but the second part turned out to be a romantic comedy which I really liked. The chemistry between Hunt and Gibson worked fine. I liked Helen Hunt a lot in this role and I didn't know Mel Gibson could be that attractive ;)

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