Review of What Men Want (2019) by Filipeneto — 26 Jun 2021

"What Woman Want" was one of the best and most striking comedies of the dawn of the new century, and it has remained relatively current and fresh. Films like this generate followers and, not infrequently, imitators. This film, despite being directly inspired by it, also ends up following some similar films (sometimes with the same name), which goes back to the beginnings of cinema. It's true, it seems that filmmakers have been trying to understand the male head for a long time.

In this film, we follow the combative and intemperate Ali Davis, a woman used to surviving (and imposing herself) in a world of men. She works for a sports agency, and promotion is a long-cherished dream. However, when she is passed over by another colleague, despite feeling that she deserved to be promoted, she loses her temper. That same day, a strange sequence of events leads, the next morning, that she wakes up with the frightening ability to hear men's thoughts... and it won't be long before she understands that she has acquired a powerful weapon to get everything she's ever wanted. But the new power will also test her ability to bond with others, starting with her friends, her gay assistant and the one-night stand she will eventually fall in love with.

The movie is not bad. It's an adaptation that sometimes sounds bad, works in a forced way, and it will even take, sometimes, a kind effort on the part of the audience to ignore the flaws and inconsistencies of the characters' behavior. However, I confess, I was capable of all this and the film ended up working, albeit with difficulty. No, in fact it's not a bad movie, but it's far from good. On top of this, the movie sometimes utterly fails to be funny, and I get the idea that the male mind is more complex than what's been showed here. In fact, I'm convinced that some men would find it insulting if a woman assumed that men only think about sex, football, uselessness, partying, and food.

Taraji Henson is the soul of the movie, and it's her ability to do some well-crafted comedy and to make her character likable that ultimately helps the movie to work better. She's funny and was able to make her character evolve favorably, become more human and understanding, but the histrionic, noisy and screaming way she acts becomes tiresome after a while. I liked, even so, the excellent partnership with Josh Brener. Both worked really well together, and Brener is really good in his role. Tracy Morgan is also histrionic and paranoid, but turns out to be less fun than Henson. Aldis Hodge also did a very well done job, but I felt he had a role that gave him relatively little to do other than being the love interest of the main character.

Technically, it's a regular film, which is nothing particularly notable: the standard cinematography and well-done editing are nothing special. The sets and costumes are good, being in the standards of what could be demanded in a film of this genre. I especially liked the corporate setting of the company and also the medium/weed dealer's studio. I also really liked the end credits, with an interesting digital design and lots of extra scenes.