Man's man Mel Gibson delivers 'What Women Want'

By Joko E.H. Anwar

What Women Want (**1/2 out of ****); Comedy/Romance/Fantasy, 126 minutes; Starring Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Alan Alda, Lauren Holly, Bette Midler (uncredited); Directed by Nancy Meyers; A Centropolis Effects/Icon Entertainment International/Wild Dancer Productions/Paramount Pictures Presentation.

JAKARTA (JP): Are you a woman who thinks that men never really listen to you or try to understand what you want?

Or, are you a man who wishes he could understand women better?

If you are the latter, you will probably be expecting a lot from this movie.

Finally there is a man who is able to listen to what women are thinking. And that man is Mel Gibson. He is not just smart, funny and sexy, but also a "man's man", a man other men admire, a leader of his pack and a true charmer of the opposite sex.

Be warned, however, because the film may not be up to your expectations. It is a featherlight piece filled with much candy and air. Nevertheless, it is still entertaining.

Gibson plays Nick Marshall, a successful Chicago-based advertising executive in one of the biggest advertising firms in the country.

The only child of a Vegas show girl, Nick was raised with all the attention and affection that a boy could possibly want and get from women. Surrounded by scantily clad women, Nick would wait backstage while his mum finishes her show.

But he grew up to be a womanizing male chauvinist. He could not accept the fact that the position of creative director, which he was expecting, was given to a notorious take-no-prisoners ad executive, Darcy McGuire (Hunt).

"It's a woman's world out there," argues his boss Dan Wanamaker (Alda).

Nick feels humiliated when Darcy asks him come up with ideas for women's products like lipstick, pregnancy test kits and leg hair removal wax.

While he continues with his politically incorrect behavior, a freak accident magically enables him to listen to what women are thinking.

Despite his charming nature, he soon realizes that most of the women he knows, including his 15-year-old daughter Alex (Ashley Johnson), consider him an irritating sexist.

First he thinks of the new ability as a curse, but then a psychiatrist (Midler) convinces him that it is a gift.

Nick begins to use his new power in many ways, including to shamelessly steal Darcy's ideas and pass them off as his own.

As can be expected in a film like this, Nick soon learns his lesson and begins to empathize with women.

There is one particularly raunchy and funny scene where Nick uses his ability to read a woman's mind to maximally satisfy his lover in bed.

Most of the credit must go to Gibson, who, despite being long past his youthful Gallipoli days, is still one of the most watchable actors on screen. In the scene where he tries on a panty hose and waxes his legs, as part of his research, he shows comic flair.

Gibson carries the film all by himself since the plot, surprisingly, does not flesh out its female characters or try to make them believable.

The women range from caricatures to background figures. It's a sad waste of good talent. Midler, who is unbilled, and Tomei, who plays a bartender who falls for Gibson's charm, should have had more screen time.

This is unfortunate given that the film was directed by a woman.

If the film had done more to give the audience something worthwhile to think about, maybe men would have learned something about the female psyche (next thing we know we will have Julia Roberts in What Men Want.

We have seen how a total jerk redeems himself after a life- changing experience in many films, most recently Disney's The Kid. And like The Kid, What Women Want mostly works, even if it is only at the entertainment level.

In fact, when the film occasionally slips into dramatics, it loses its momentum.

The fair share of romance mostly works due to fine chemistry between Gibson and Hunt.

The script, written by Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa and Diane Drake, does not give Hunt space to develop a larger character, but she performs well all the same.

Director Meyers made her name writing feel-good romantic comedies such as Baby Boom (1987) with Diane Keaton and Private Benjamin (1980) starring Goldie Hawn.

She made her directing debut with the remake of The Parent Trap in 1998.

Despite the failings of What Women Want, the director knows her territory, and that is why people are unlikely to gripe too much about its long running time.

Who knows, the film may even win you over.