 |
|
|
What Women Want by Daniel Papkin Any of you lads interested in knowing what women want? Well, apparently if you slather on a few creams, slide some panty hose over your manly thighs, then plunge into the tub with an operating hair dryer in your hand, the resulting jolt will provide you with the psychic ability you desire. Alternatively, you could see this movie, but to my mind the electrocution is the less painful route. A swollen sitcom of a film that strives for the glib urbanity of the classic studio film but settles for being a star vehicle with a few dick jokes and a mortfying dance number, What Women Want squanders a promising premise through banal, made-for-television execution. The film centers on that most romantic of professions, advertising. Mel Gibson plays a snake of an ad man who loses a coveted creative director post to the bronzed Helen Hunt, a whiz kid brought in to help the agency score with the booming female demographic. It is as a flummoxed Mel attempts to sample some feminine products that the aforementioned mystical electrocution occurs. Post-trauma, the cocky Mel begins to hear what women think of him. PAGE 1 | 2 |
 |
|
|
He is pleased to hear he has a nice ass but less happy to discover that his alienated daughter--along most discerning females--thinks he is a huge jerk. As if to prove this, he uses his talents not for the good of humanity, but rather to simultaneously woo and sabotage Ms. Hunt, stealing both her heart and the coveted Nike account (the product placement throughout the film is shameless). Will Mel's feminine intuition trump his reptilian manly ways? Will the co-stars end up happily together? Will the movie attempt to use its purile better understanding through electrocution gambit more than once? If you want to find out the answers to these admittedly important questions, see this film. If you really want to know what women want, however, ask a woman. Most of them are far more intelligent and interesting than this film. PAGE 1 | 2 |