Product: What Women Want [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 2.0
Vapid and Disjointed
I knew I was not going to be watching Doctor Zhivago when I checked this DVD out of the local library, but I thought, with Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt involved (as well as Alan Alda and a wonderful Marisa Tomei in supporting roles), the story would make some sense whatsoever, or at least be mildly amusing. What a waste.This film cannot decide whether it wants to be an aburdist comedy, a "Working Girl" like tale of a woman rising to the top in a man's business world, or a love story involving the two lead characters. They also throw in a little rebellious daughter v. overprotective father stuff for good measure. At various times in the movie, it tries to do all of the above, none very well mind you, only to abandon the premise in favor of something else.Mel Gibson is a successful, cocky, chauvinist advertising executive in line for a promotion by his boss Alan Alda. On the day he is supposedly destined for glory, Alda pulls an about face and hires outsider Helen Hunt for the promotion, who was recently fired from her job at a competing agency, despite her supposedly great marketing ideas for targeting women consumers. There follows a rather predictable effort at sabotage by Mel, while (equally predictably) he starts falling for his new boss Hunt at the same time he pities her.Within this fairly unexciting plotline the writers have thrown a bizarre twist, namely that Gibson, who receives a shock in his bathtub, can now hear the secret thoughts of all women around him. One horrible scene involves Gibson walking through a department store, I think it was the prefume section, and being literally tortured by the bombardment of thoughts assailing him from all females present. After they believe this joke wears a little thin, (and believe me it does), the writers just basically abandon the premise!By the conclusion you just want this dog to end, since many reviewers here rightly pointed out the movie is about thirty minutes too long. I liked the scenes with quirky Marisa Tomei, an aspiring actress who works in a coffee bar and worries about the impending loss of her looks, but Mel (and the writers) drop Marisa like a dirty shirt about halfway through the film. Gibson ends up being, at least with Tomei, exactly the kind of chauvinist jerk they are trying to convince you he is not. You have to admire Gibson's willingness to take risks and change gears every now and then, making a film like this in favor of yet another Braveheart/Patriot clone. However if you still want to watch What Women Want, by all means rent this movie, you won't want to sit through it more than once.