Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageWhat Women Want (2000)
Director: Nancy Meyers
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Gibson's chauvinist adman suffers electrocution by hairdryer and wakes up hearing voices subjecting him to torrents of abuse. It isn't schizophrenia. Hexed by the dryer, Nick Marshall can now read women's minds. Turns out they really do hate him. If the premise for Meyer's superficially good-looking romantic comedy stinks, it doesn't help that she's toeing the John Gray 'Mars and Venus' line of reductionist claptrap. There's precious little in these minds for anyone to read: waitress Lola (Tomei) is afraid of getting hurt again; new boss and putative ball-breaker Darcy (Hunt) is quite nice at heart. It's easy to take candy from these babies, and so Nick does, putting his new-found skill to work and poaching Darcy's ideas. So far, so insipid. Hunt's career woman is paper-thin, while Gibson trespasses awkwardly on Clooney territory, as he explores mysterious girly products, waxing his legs and trying on tights. After his transformation, irritation levels mount as 'feminisation' sets in. Alongside an automatic identification with gay men, Nick develops a taste for spilling his emotional guts and jumping headlong into the romantic mushpot.Author: SS
Cast & crew
Director: Nancy Meyers
Producer: Matt Williams, Susan Cartsonis, Gina Matthews, Bruce Davey, Nancy Meyers
Cast: Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Mark Feuerstein, Lauren Holly, Ashley Johnson, Judy Greer, Alan Alda, Delta Burke, Valerie Perrine, Bette Midler full cast
Duration: 127 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Review: Penélope Cruz more raunchy than ever in 'Nine'
Dave Calhoun reports on Rob Marshall's Oscar-touted musical with Daniel Day-Lewis playing a troubled director
Time Out's 101 Films of the Decade
Ten years, thousands of movies and millions of dollars in international box office, and it all boils down to this
Jim Jarmusch on 'The Limits of Control'
Jim Jarmusch has followed ‘Broken Flowers’ with an esoteric crime mystery. Dave Calhoun speaks to him from his New York office
Richard Linklater on 'Me and Orson Welles'
Dave Calhoun meets the 49-year-old, Houston-born filmmaker Richard Linklater to discuss his new comedy
Our verdict on Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones
Peter Jackson ends a triumphant decade with a sentimental misfire with this lush Alice Sebold adaptation
On the set of Ken Loach's 'Route Irish'
Dave Calhoun meets Ken Loach on the set of his forthcoming Iraq war movie
Is 'Paranormal Activity' the new 'Blair Witch'?
How does a film go from DIY experiment to box-office smash? 'Paranormal Activity' director Oren Peli explains
A gateway to all things 'New Moon'
In anticipation of 'The Twilight Saga: New Moon', Time Out is offering the chance to pick up a limited edition pack with three exclusive magazines and a free poster.
The films that deserve a TV spin-off
With Roland Emmerich suggesting he'd like to make a '2012' TV spin-off, we propose some more movie-to-TV serialisations
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations
What do you think?
Post your review now