She maled it!
Taraji P. Henson is the bright spot in unneeded remake of What Women Want
Remember Mel Gibson in 2000’s What Women Want? The makers of the latest race-and-genderflip remake probably hope not, because that movie has NOT aged well. Just check out the scene where Gibson’s Alpha Male character accepts a gift from his assistant’s Israeli boyfriend with a hearty: “Thanks for the yarmulke, man!” I would give this film two extra stars if it threw in a Gibson cameo — though to be fair I’d immediately take them away again.
What Men Want will probably not be remembered in 20 years either; it has its own minor flaws, and is just not an especially impressive fantasy rom-com, though it does travel some distance on the easy charm of its star, Taraji P. Henson. And it includes one bizarre bit of humour, where a Tarot card reading inexplicably turns up one from an Uno deck.
Henson plays Ali Davis, named after the boxer and working as an agent in a sports marketing
firm called Summit Worldwide Management. The company’s initials also describe most of the high-level employees there. After being passed over for promotion in favour of a man — shades of Jennifer Lopez in the recent Second Act — Ali is gifted (doesn’t matter how) with the ability to read men’s thoughts.
I was curious whether she might be able to read male animals’ minds, after Gibson’s brief peek into a dog’s brain opened an otherwise unexplored sideline in the original film. And my 11-yearold son wondered if this movie would address transgender thoughts. (Also: This film is not really suitable for 11-year-olds.) But the screenwriters keep it simple. Ali uses her powers to find out about her male colleagues’ secret poker night, and then to beat them at the game. She also reads Joe “Dolla” Barry (Tracy Morgan, reliably flippant and chaotic) to best figure out how to sign his basketball-prodigy son with her firm.
Directed by Adam Shankman (Hairspray, Rock of Ages), What Men Want treads carefully around the notion that Ali needs this superpower to succeed. The suggestion is that this latter-day Jenny Maguire has been purposefully blocked by the men at SWM. But of course she learns to better appreciate men in general, not least her devoted assistant (Josh Brener) and a lacklustre love interest (Aldis Hodge), who didn’t even make the movie’s poster.
The movie also feels the need to shoehorn in a trio of buddies, thus adding another subplot where Ali’s awareness of the thoughts of the men in their lives causes problems for everyone. It’s no wonder the film runs to almost two hours.
What Men Want manages to nominally answer the implied question in the title. (Hint: It’s pretty much what women want, except men already have more of it than they realize.) But I was most impressed with some of the throwaway thoughts in men’s heads: Pop songs on repeat, body image issues, and “I wish I could remember the name of that cheese that I like.” It’s like it was reading my mind!