December 14–21, 2000

movie shorts

What Women Want

The primary storyline in Nancy Meyers’ movie involves Mel Gibson competing and then falling in love with Helen Hunt, his new boss at the advertising agency (in itself a clever touch, given that the film is all about wanting and being told what to want). Along the way he’s struck by the affliction of hearing women’s thoughts — due to a silly household accident where he’s essentially electrocuted into sentience — which he uses to his own professional and personal advantage until, much like the male heroes in Tootsie and Boomerang, he becomes a better man by empathizing with the opposite sex. He goes through all the usual better-man moves — he becomes a good father to his 15-year-old daughter (Ashley Johnson), takes his lady to a jazz club (hey, it works for Clint Eastwood), rescues a mousey would-be suicide and pitches a fantabulous campaign to that great equal rights supporter, Nike. Strangely, the very best thing Gibson does occurs before his change; he dances to Frank Sinatra singing "I Won’t Dance," using a hat and coat rack as props. It’s strange because even though it’s presumptuous to quote Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire as he does, Gibson looks swell, even respectful, doing it. But this bit of charm doesn’t make up for the film’s exhausted romance, which, for all its protest to the contrary, ends up extolling the virtues of standard masculine heroics.

—Cindy Fuchs