What Women Want

What’s the Story?

WHAT WOMEN WANT stars Mel Gibson as Nick Marshall, a Chicago ad exec who is successful at work and with the ladies, whom he wheedles and charms but never really thinks about. Nick is promoted to Creative Director, and gets a new boss, Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt). The ad agency needs to appeal to women consumers, so Darcy hands out products for the staff to explore, and Nick does his best, experimenting with mascara, leg wax, nail polish, and exfoliater. But an accidental near-electrocution leaves him with a new power -- the ability to hear women's thoughts. At first horrified, Nick realizes that there are some real advantages to being the only straight man in the world who knows how women think. He uses it to manipulate women, including Darcy and a pretty coffee shop waitress (Marisa Tomei). But it turns out that women do not think about Nick the way that he thought they did, and he is forced to think about himself in a new way. Nick has never listened to women before, but now he can't help it. He sees the damage that he has done, and he begins to correct it. And of course he begins to fall in love with Darcy and to connect to his 15-year-old daughter.

Is It Any Good?

Mel Gibson shows us just what women want in his first-ever romantic comedy -- we want Mel Gibson. Gibson is sheer heaven in this movie, dancing to Frank Sinatra in his apartment, watching his daughter try on prom dresses, or just reacting to snippets of thoughts he hears from girls, women, and even female dogs as he walks down the street. He has the physical grace of a leading man and the timing and unselfconsciousness of a comic. The script sags in places, but Gibson keeps the movie floating in the clouds.