What Women Want

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What Women Want
Film poster
Directed by	Nancy Meyers
Produced by	Susan Cartsonis Bruce Davey Gina Matthews Nancy Meyers Matt Williams
Written by	Josh Goldsmith Cathy Yuspa Diane Drake
Starring	Mel Gibson Helen Hunt Marisa Tomei Alan Alda Ashley Johnson Bette Midler
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Dean Cundey
Editing by	Thomas J. Nordberg Stephen A. Rotter Carol Littleton (Additional Editing)
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (USA) Icon Entertainment (non-USA)
Release date(s)	December 13, 2000
Running time	127 min.
Language	English French
Budget	$40,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

What Women Want is a 2000 film, directed by Nancy Meyers and starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. The movie achieved enormous success with a domestic gross of $182,811,707 and a world-wide gross of $374,111,707.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Mel Gibson is Nick Marshall, an ad executive who grew up with his Las Vegas showgirl mother - and so has an alpha male view of women, which works well for him when it comes to getting men to buy beer or cars or getting most women (such as a coffee attendant Marisa Tomei at a local shop) to fawn over him. However, just as he thinks he's heading for a promotion, his manager Dan (Alan Alda) informs him that he needs to hire the talents of Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt) to keep the ad company 'fresh' and get new customers. When Darcy is introduced in the office, and as she is making her introductory speech, Morgan (Nick's friend) pretends to masturbate and ejaculate into Nick's eye, who then pretends to be hurt under friendly fire, a private joke between the two to imply that they'd like to have sex with Darcy.

Compounding his problems, his 15 year-old daughter Alex is spending two weeks with him while his ex-wife Gigi goes on her honeymoon with her new husband. Alex sees Nick as someone she's embarrassed to have as a father, and is not interested in his being 'protective' when she brings a boyfriend home.

Needing to prove that he's still 'the best' to Darcy and Dan, Nick attempts to think of ad angles for a series of feminine products that Darcy gave out to the workers. While in the bathroom, he accidentally slips on some bath beads and falls into a bathtub while holding an electric hairdryer. He tries to get out, but slips and the dryer falls into the tub while he still has one foot in, electrocuting him.

The next day, Nick wakes up to 'hear' his maid as she cleans up his apartment. It soon dawns on Nick that he can hear women's thoughts without seeing their lips move. He proves this to himself as he walks through a park and encounters numerous women, each time 'hearing' their innermost thoughts. When he goes to a previous therapist (Bette Midler) for help, she gives him the notion that this is the best thing that could have happened to him: "If Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus, and you can speak Venusian, the world is your oyster."

Helen Hunt and Mel Gibson in What Women Want

Now with a sense of purpose, Nick uses his new 'talent' to get into women's minds and use their ideas as his own. This works for awhile, but as he spends more time with Darcy, he finds that he develops feelings for her. This also puts him at odds though when he tries to become closer with his daughter, who resents Nick for trying after so many years of neglect. This isn't any help since Nick has a dislike of her older boyfriend, whom he suspects is only with his daughter to sleep with her and then dump her, something Nick has ultimately done many times over with various women.

When he manages to trump Darcy out of her idea for a new Nike ad campaign designed for women, he finds that he regrets his actions, especially as it leads to her being fired and himself being put in her place. However, Nick patches things up with his daughter when his suspicions are confirmed after she breaks up with her boyfriend, when refusing to sleep with him. As a result, Nick happily consoles his daughter in her time of need.

The movie ends with Nick losing his gift via a freak power line shortage in the area where he was standing (Nick having gone to look for an assistant at his company whom he suspects of being suicidal), and confessing everything to Darcy. Despite the fact that he was the cause of her getting fired, Darcy finds that she has romantic feelings for Nick as well, and is willing to forgive him.

[edit] Cast

Mel Gibson as Nick Marshall
Helen Hunt as Darcy McGuire
Marisa Tomei as Lola
Alan Alda as Dan Wanamaker
Ashley Johnson as Alexandra 'Alex' Marshall
Mark Feuerstein as Morgan Farwell
Lauren Holly as Gigi
Delta Burke as Eve
Valerie Perrine as Margo
Judy Greer as Erin
Sarah Paulson as Annie
Ana Gasteyer as Sue Cranston
Bette Midler as Dr. J.M. Perkins (uncredited)

[edit] Trivia

When the movie starts up, Nick is wearing nothing but different variations of black for about an hour. As he gets more and more feminine and understanding to women, he starts wearing other colors.

Dave Chappelle of Chappelle's Show did a parody of What Women Want calling the skit What Men Want (MADtv did a skit with the same title and same premise as well)

Saturday Night Live did a parody of this movie and the movie We Were Soldiers by combining the two. The parody was called "We Were Soldiers That Knew What Women Want (featured on the season 27 episode hosted by Jon Stewart [who played Mel Gibson] with musical guest, India.Arie.^[1])

This is the only movie directed by Nancy Meyers that does not feature the signature box art of The Parent Trap, The Holiday, and Something's Gotta Give.