In What Women Want, Mel Gibson is a rougher version of Cary Grant and Rock Hudson.
Four decades ago, Grant and Hudson were the masters of the fluffy battle-of-the-sexes comedies that What Women Want aspires to be.
Like his predecessors, Gibson plays a wily Casanova who has to learn that the heart is located above the belt.
Gibson is Nick Marshall a womanizing advertising executive who not only listens to Frank Sinatra tunes but prides himself in being a rat.
Nick views every pretty woman as a possible conquest. Any woman who doesn't meet his seduction standards is merely a drone to be ignored or flirted with.
Nick's world is thrown into chaos the day his boss Dan Wanamaker (Alan Alda) gives Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt) the job Nick is convinced should be his.
Dan chooses Darcy because the agency has failed to win any contracts for women's products.
Nick is determined to undermine Darcy and is given the perfect tool to succeed.
When Nick electrocutes himself in the bathroom of his apartment, he develops the ability to hear women's thoughts.
He doesn't have to out think Darcy.
He just has to eavesdrop on her thoughts and make them his own.
It's a devious little scheme that works and then backfires.
Everyone including Darcy is convinced Nick is perfectly attuned to the female psyche making Darcy redundant at the office but not in Nick's life.
Nick has heard how much Darcy cares for him and he finds himself falling for her.
Gibson's natural rakish charm is exactly what What Women Wants needs.
Even when Nick is a genuine boor, he's lovable because it's Gibson pulling all the strings.
This is most evident in Nick's seduction of Lola (Marisa Tomei) a desperately lonely waitress in his office coffee shop.
Nick knows how terrified Lola is of being used by yet another wolf in sheep's clothing but he wants her all the same.
His new powers allow him to break down her defences to give her a night of supreme pleasure because he also learns exactly how she dreams of being seduced.
Still he has no intentions of making this more than a one-night stand.
How he extricates himself from the dilemma is hilarious.
Even in his darkest dramas and action films Gibson showed glimpses of comic prowess. What Women Wants gives him licence to open the flood gates.
Scenes of Gibson waxing his legs, pretending to be sensitive or gay, gossiping at the coffee machine and taking aerobics classes hit their mark.
Gibson also has a winning musical number in which he pays tribute to Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.
Like Doris Day in sex comedies she did with Hudson, Hunt plays the perfect straight man to Gibson's scene stealer.
She graciously allows herself to be the brunt of so many jokes but she still brings a great deal of strength and sensitivity to the role.
Bette Midler, Delta Burke, Lauren Holly, Ashley Johnson and Valerie Perrine all have delicious cameos.
Director Nancy Meyers needed to spend a few more weeks in the editing room, otherwise she has crafted a sprightly holiday comedy that everyone wants this time of year.
(This film is rated AA)
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