What Women Want

(Movie Review) 

Well, obviously this is a chic-flick. And, as with any other straight male, there can only be one reason I sat down to watch this: a girl chose the movie. 

You know, I can't even really remember the last time I saw a chic-flick. (That is the accepted term for these movies, right? I'm not going to get in trouble for calling them that, am I?) 

But as the movie started up, I was surprised to discover there was a bit of nostalgia in me for these movies. They reminded me of my college days. There would be a huge amount of people crammed into a dorm room or a Calvin apartment for a movie night. Somehow the girls always ended up getting to chose the movie. And we would all do our best to be gentlemen about it and go with the girls choice. 

Obviously we weren't part of the target audience for these movies, but the romantic comedy movies would often have some pretty funny parts that got even us guys laughing. 

And then, as I recall, a wrestling match or something would usually break out during the slow parts or the overly sappy ending. 

Often we would talk all the way through the movie. And in fact I almost wonder if these movies are specifically designed so that you can talk over them the whole time. You never have to worry about missing any important plot points, and you can have these movies on in the background and just kind of fade in and out of them as you like. 

(If one were to actually sit down and give these movies your full attention from beginning to end, however, it's a bit of a painful experience, but I'll get to that later.) 

In short, I think I associate romantic comedies with a night of fun college-age shenanigans in the dorm rooms. 

And this movie came out right about the time I was finishing up my last semester in college. I still remember the previews for it (partly because I saw the previews over and over again. They seemed to be everywhere back then). And I remember being unimpressed. 

And I think I might have read a couple negative reviews for this film as well. 

I was therefore pleasantly surprised at how funny this movie really was. I was laughing out loud at several points. 

The plot (as I'm sure you know already from the marketing blitz 9 years ago) is that Mel Gibson can read the minds of women. 

The idea is almost exactly the same as that old Disney movie, "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" (W)--(which used to be constantly shown on the Disney Channel during the 80s.) 

Although at least in the case of Merlin Jones, the screenwriters go through a little bit of effort to explain how Merlin got these powers. In "What Women Want" the explanation is simply that Mel Gibson got an electric shock in the bathtub. Why this enables him to hear people's thoughts, and why only women's thoughts, is never even attempted to be explained. 

I guess it's just as well. With a premise so fantastical as this one, you don't really care what the explanation for it is, you just want to see what the comic results are. 

Still...still, I can't help hoping the screenwriters got a pay cut for such blatant laziness. 

There were points were I felt Mel Gibson's maniac reactions bordered on over-acting, but for the most part this was a really funny movie with really great comic timing. 

The problem is in the sappy ending scenes with the saccharine orchestra music playing as Mel Gibson makes his great romantic speech. That part can probably be safely talked over. 

Further thoughts: 

although obviously a movie made for women, this movie confirms one of the great male truisms of all time: we don't have a clue what women really are thinking. 

It would be interesting to see someone's take on it in reverse--if a women could hear the thoughts of males. My suspicions is that they wouldn't find out much they didn't already know. That is to say, I think women do a much better job at imagining things from the male perspective than vice-versa. But I'd be interested in hearing a women's perspective on this. 

And one last sidenote: while I'm on the subject of romantic movies and gender related preferences, I thought this blog post was pretty interesting: "Top 25 Romantic Movies That Are Really Made For Guys". I agree with some of the commenters that the tone of the post is boarder-line insulting to women, but the whole thing is interesting food for thought nonetheless. From my personal perspective, I do agree that "High Fidelity", "Casablanca", "Annie Hall", and "The Graduate" are all high on my list.  

Link of the Day 

Noam Chomsky discusses the slogan "Support Our Troops" 

and Rachel Maddow: Former Bush Cabinet Secretary Gale Norton Subject of Formal Corruption Investigation 

and Dick Armey Is Fighting To Keep His Government Health Care Coverage. Hypocrisy Much?

What Women Want: Movie Review (Scripted)