What Women Want Review (2000) – A Rom Com that discusses chauvinism in an oddly funny and quirky way!

Continuing with the month of love but with a bit of a twist we decided to watch a movie that we have not seen in years! What Women Want! This movie was very interesting for us to rewatch…it is blatantly chauvinistic but it is supposed to be. We had fun with it! It is a funny movie! But there is a lot to unpack here.

The movie can be triggering as it touches on suicide, blatant harmful stereotypes and sexism.

We will do everything we can to not give too many spoilers in this review but there are likely to be some, so please take that into consideration and read cautiously.

 The movie starts with some great shots of Chicago and a voice over explaining what a “man’s man” is and who our main character Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is. The voice over is being done by Nick’s ex-wife Gigi (Lauren Holly) who is getting married that very day!

We found the whole “man’s man” thing interesting…as we think that chauvinism is not something that should be encouraged or celebrated in any fashion. Not that it seems like Gigi is trying to do that…but it does come across somewhat glorifying.

Apparently a “man’s man” is a man that other men admire, and want to emulate. These are men that are good at getting what they want in life, especially with women and they can behave like shitheads…as long as they are charming about it?

This does not add up to us potatoes, but this movie was put out there in 2000…so there is that to consider! It feels like the “man’s man” concept is the older version of the whole “alpha” nonsense that we deal with these days.

The voice over explains that Nick’s mother was a Las Vegas show girl. She and all of her fellow show girls just adored Nick and thoroughly spoiled him. Nick’s upbringing (which was definitely unconventional) is honestly not the issue. The issue is that Nick was spoiled and had depraved father figures in his life.

From here the voice over is done, and we cut to Nick in his bed with red lipstick on his cheek. His housekeeper, Stella, (Diana Maria Riva) wakes him up by trying to do her job. She tells him that it is “almost 10!” He sits up, puts a cigarette in his mouth and he says, “you couldn’t toss me my lighter could you babe?”

Irritated she asks him, “What am I your little pig?” She tosses him the lighter as she cleans, and tells him that she is not interested in making him breakfast. Stella continues cleaning and finds thong panties to which she asks him if he has ever considered dating a woman that wears underwear that actually covers their bottom.

He responds to this by slapping Stella’s ass and asking if he should give her a call…

The film already sets the tone pretty quickly with the voice over that Nick is a chauvinistic ass, but it becomes even clearer after you meet him.

After he slaps her ass, he asks her to make him breakfast in a whiny tone and Stella unfortunately agrees to do it.

Men like Nick, very much feel like they simply have not grown up. They behave like children and want to be taken care of like a child. It is annoying to say the least!

He somehow manages to dress himself, and leave his apartment building. This is where we meet Flo (Loretta Devine) the door woman, who is a very boisterous and energetic woman that whistles Nick down a cab.

Nick seems to find Flo aggressive…which gave us the ick for several reasons. There is nothing wrong with a woman having a louder voice, or being energetic…it also gave us the ick because there is not a lot of diversity within this film, and Flo is one of the only diverse characters.

Why did they make her specifically more “aggressive”? We like Flo’s character! We think the actress did great. But we think that the representation feels off, and icky.

Nick takes the cab to a coffee shop where he purposefully bumps into a young blond woman causing her to spill her coffee on her blouse. Under the guise of helping her he subtly cops a feel, opens the door for her and thanks her.

To say Nick is a nasty person…is to put it mildly. Nick wants to “date” the barista Lola, but Lola turns him down politely. She asks him to stop asking her out. He tells her he will stop asking her out, but he manages to manipulate her into not focusing on her annoyance with him or his boorish behavior.

He finally makes it into work! We meet his work friend Morgan (Mark Feuerstein). He talks about how “blessed” and lucky he is. His ex-wife is getting remarried that day, but his boss has arranged a meeting with Nick that Nick believes is about a promotion for him to be creative director. He is over cocky about his “promotion.”

As he moves through the building to get to his office he is dismissive, rude, and inconsiderate to every woman he works with! With the exception of the two women that are his direct assistants who dote on him. Of course.

He “charms” them, and excitedly hurries to his meeting with his boss.

His boss, Dan Wanamaker (Alan Alda), discusses how their business has gone down due to the fact that their firm does not have a reputation for being able to sell women’s products. He talks about how the market is now dominated by women…because times have changed.

Which is true…because now women can open their own bank accounts, get jobs, and make their own money….etc. So…it makes sense. Dan talks about how they need to evolve and change with the market which leads us to our female lead, Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt).

Dan tells Nick that he hired Darcy…for the job that Nick believed he was going to get. Darcy is going to be the creative director. Nick is appalled and upset. Everything should just be handed to Nick!

He feels entitled to this position and he is determined to get it. But he has other engagements that day!

Cut to his ex-wife’s, Gigi’s wedding reception. He has be at the reception because he needs to pick up his teenage daughter Alex (Ashley Johnson). Alex is going to be staying with him while Gigi is on her honeymoon.

He tells his daughter how great it is going to be to have her around! “You can take care of your old man for a change! Cook for me, get me my slippers…”

Alex is less than impressed with this. There is some clear tension between the two of them, and it is obvious who has actually been a parent to Alex and it is not Nick!

We cut back to Nick at work, in a meeting to meet the new creative director Darcy. He drops his pen and while he is bending over to pick it up he is distracted by Darcy’s legs. Darcy picks up the pen for him and introduces herself.

Darcy is a hardworking, intelligent and compassionate woman that truly deserves this job. She exudes good leadership skills, and professionalism.

She discusses how important it is that they try to focus more of their marketing skills on women, and this means understanding women’s products. She has a goody box of women’s products made for everyone on the team and passes them out. Every item in the box is “looking for new representation.”

Nick tries to avoid taking a box, but Darcy notices and passes him one. He looks a little sheepish, but overall annoyed at the situation. Darcy goes over the products within the box, and encourages the team to take the boxes home and try to come up with some ideas for at least one item within the box.

Nick is…well Nick. He takes the box home but he has no intention of truly doing anything with it. He goes home and watches T.V. but is finding T.V. to have “too much estrogen.”

The “perfect antidote for estrogen” is Frank Sinatra. We should give you guys a heads up…Frank Sinatra is pretty much the entire soundtrack of this movie. It makes sense…Frank was a huge womanizer. So it weirdly works.

Nick dances around to some Fran Sinatra, and decides to check out the box. He starts pulling out the items, and trying to brainstorm some ideas. He is struggling. Every idea he has is through the male gaze, and completely lacks perspective.

To help combat this he decides to go through Alex’s back pack and listen to one of her CD’s while he tries the female products. He tries EVERYTHING!

This scene actually is pretty funny because he hurts himself putting mascara on and he tries to wax his leg. Watching him wax is hilarious! “Women are insane! Why would you do that more than once?”

He tries all of the products, and gets ready to blow dry his hair when Alex and her boyfriend Cameron, (Eric Balfour) walk in on him!

They stand there a bit stunned staring at Nick in all his stockings and Wonderbra! Alex hears the music he is playing and feels frustrated with Nick. She gets into a minor argument with him about going through her things, and Nick’s overall poor listening skills.

Upset Nick is trying to prove that he listens by yelling different names for her boyfriend at her…she is annoyed and goes to her room with Nick yelling more names after her. The way he yells “CARMICHEAL!” Had us laughing!

We can’t help but keep yelling CARMICHEAL randomly since watching it.

He finally gets the name right! “His name is CAMERON!” Spinning around, running blow dryer still in hand, he accidentally knocks over the bath beads slips manages to land one foot into a bathtub filled with water!

He electrocutes himself! Falling forward he lands on the bathroom floor HARD. Nick wakes up the next morning covered in bath beads and extremely disoriented.

His cleaner is there trying to clean around him but he keeps hearing her “say” more snarky things than usual. Confused he gets out of the house and quickly finds himself bombarded by thoughts…the thoughts of all of the women around him…and SHOCKER…most women despise him!

The movie continues with him trying to understand his new found power. Terrified at first he tries to get rid of the power, but he can’t seem to. With a little help he learns to embrace this power and use it to his own selfish advantage…but he starts to develop feelings for Darcy.

We will leave it there. This is a film that we enjoyed but we are not completely sure how to feel about. On the one hand chauvinism, sexism, all of it is very real and we appreciated this version of it being brought to light as there are varying degrees of this issue.

However, there were parts of it that also felt off. The lack of diversity, how the more diverse characters are portrayed, and how even though it is supposed to be a movie that shows us how women think…it still feels lacking in real nuance and perspective there.

It was way too forgiving a film in our opinion. The ending is that of a classic Rom Com…which means that it is of course “happy.” But it feels like…maybe it should not have been! At least not in a typical sense anyway!

Nick gets this amazing power to hear women’s thoughts…and he does what is expected and what a ton of men throughout history have done! He uses his power for his own selfish gains. He does have some growth and learning throughout the film. Which does redeem his character! But the stuff with Darcy…well that is a whole can of worms that we felt deserved more growth opportunities for Nick.

But this film truly is funny! Even these days which is surprising! Some of it has not aged well, but the writing is overall still good! The acting is well done, and while the chauvinism can be hard to swallow at times…it is supposed to be.

Overall it is very much a 2000’s Rom Com! It has a lot of the tropes and is fairly predictable. We thought the movie was all right! It did make us laugh! You have to bear in mind what the film is trying to do, and you have to keep in mind the time it came out. The film would probably not have been as enjoyable if the cast was not so great! The casting for this movie, (despite Mel Gibson being in it…) was very good!

If you are someone who likes old school Rom Com’s with good writing and a really great cast! Then check the movie out! It is a funny, and silly film!

We give this movie…3 martinis out of 5!

What Women Want Drinking Game

Take a sip anytime:

1.     Frank Sinatra plays

2.     Nick lights a cigarette

3.     Nick says "Babe"

4.     Nick is rude

5.     Nick is chauvinistic

6.     Nick smiles or smirks like a dipshit

7.     Nick puts on the charm

8.     Nick steals an idea from Darcy

9.     Nick neglects his daughter

10.  Nick is kind or shows growth

11.  Darcy challenges Nick

12. Alex complains or whines

What did you think?? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it!? Do you have suggestions for films we should consider?! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!