Product: What Women Want [VHS] (2000)
Rating: 2.0
Ran out of ideas...
I was able to watch "What Women Want" free of charge.And that is the only way to watch it since it is quite disposable as a romantic comedy. This is one of those films the wife begs to see - if you catch my drift.Now I am not saying I despise romantic comedies. Great ones do exist. This is simply not one of them.The film starts out promisingly enough. The anti-Cary Grant character that Mel Gibson plays finds it necessary to clue his playboy self into what women want materially in order to keep up with the new female boss (Helen Hunt) at his ad agency. Due to a freakish accident (in one of the few genuinely funny scenes in the movie), he receives the gimmick of being able to actually hear women thinking. Blessed/cursed by this gift, he surmises that he can use it to get exactly what HE wants. Wronged by his new outsider boss who stole the position he was due, he subtly begins to undermine her career. But even as he does, he finds her to be more than he imagined, falling in love with her along the way. Think of it as an update of a film in the manner of "His Girl Friday".But where that film is a classic, this one is a lesson in how to suffocate a movie. Each minute of running time draws a noose around the neck of the film so by the time it ends its finale is impossible to write. In fact, this movie has one of the most contrived and poorly-penned endings in the history of romantic comedies. My wife and I just looked at each other and said, "Aw, c'mon!" To the director/writer, I simply give the advice that it is essential to make the audience buy the ending in any romantic comedy. She failed miserably in this regard and just killed the movie. Sadly, the DVD's commentary track exposes her own trepidations concerning the ending, but she never listened to those nagging doubts and the ending is a mess because of that.Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei is wasted in the film. Mel is often forced to do schtick while Oscar-winning Helen is simply lifeless compared to her turn in "As Good As It Gets". So much high-caliber talent, yet such torture to watch them flail within their caricatures. When you see the gears grinding, you know the film just isn't working.The DVD offers no great redemption, either. Usually a director's commentary provides some insights, but the director is so self-important it is hard to listen. I feel for the male production designer who joined her on the commentary track because she interrupts him mercilessly. I think the director's misandry is showing.So what rescues this movie from the dreaded one star review? Well, I'm being benevolent by giving it one more for the wonderful Astaire impression Mel does while dancing to "Old Blue Eyes". He also provides good laughs during his lame attempt to get in touch with his feminine side (just before receiving his supernatural ability.)In short, skip this one and buy something worthy like "A Room with a View", "Roman Holiday", "Bringing Up Baby", or "When Harry Met Sally".