Review of What Women Want (2000) by Sgt. C — 15 Dec 2014

(54%).

A throwback of sorts to the frothy romantic comedies of the 50's and 60's, only here it stars Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt rather than Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn, or maybe even Marilyn Monroe. And it's not just the inclusion of swing music in the soundtrack, but also the general look and feel in which this is assembled together; also the mostly light-hearted nature and bubbly concept has a trace of a past period's charm. Gibson is on very good form here in the leading role in which he clearly put a lot of effort into, and the premise is used fairly well with enough humour and bite to the writing for the movie to never really bog down or become overly silly. At around 2 hours long it does stretch itself too far, and the parts dealing with a depressed co-worker drags the movie out and poorly fits in with everything else this has in terms of tone. For what it is, and how awful it could have been, this is a perfectly good entry into Gibson's filmography.