10+ / 10
What Women Want is one of the most commercially successful romantic comedies of the 2000s. Seen it five times across decades. The 10+ rating is honest evaluation. Nancy Meyers directing. Mel Gibson as Nick Marshall. Helen Hunt as Darcy Maguire. Marisa Tomei as Lola. Lauren Holly as Gigi. Mark Feuerstein as Morgan Farwell. Bette Midler as Dr. J.M. Perkins. Alan Alda as Dan Wanamaker. Ashley Johnson as Alex Marshall. The film made approximately $374 million worldwide on a $70 million budget. The financial return was exceptional. The supernatural premise about a man who can suddenly hear women’s thoughts produces sustained comedic and dramatic material across the runtime. The film operates as both substantial commercial entertainment and as legitimate cultural commentary about gender dynamics in late-1990s American corporate life.
The Setup
Chicago. Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is a successful advertising executive who has been operating as womanizer across his entire adult life. He believes he is the kind of man women want. He treats women as objects available for his manipulation. He has been substantially successful in advertising because he understands male consumer psychology at substantial depth. He cannot reach the female consumer market because he has never bothered to understand women as anything other than targets.
Nick expects to be promoted to creative director of his advertising agency. The promotion goes to Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt) instead. Darcy has been brought in specifically because the agency’s leadership has recognized that the future of advertising requires substantial engagement with female consumers. Nick is professionally humiliated. He returns home angry. He attempts various female-product testing assignments that Darcy has given the team. He uses pantyhose. He waxes his legs. He has an accident with a hair dryer in the bathtub.
The electrical accident produces unexpected consequences. Nick wakes up the next morning able to hear women’s thoughts. The capability operates continuously and cannot be turned off. He hears every woman around him thinking constantly. The capability initially appears as catastrophe. The film documents Nick’s gradual recognition that the capability is also opportunity. He can use the information to understand female consumers, to manipulate professional situations, and eventually to develop genuine emotional capability that his earlier life had been denying him.
The Mel Gibson Performance
Mel Gibson plays Nick Marshall at substantial commercial register. The performance integrates physical comedy with dramatic character development. The early sequences require Gibson to operate at broad comic register including the famous bathroom waxing sequence. The middle sequences require him to operate at substantial dramatic register as the character begins recognizing the consequences of his earlier life. The later sequences require him to integrate both registers as Nick attempts to repair the damage he has caused.
The performance was Gibson at the height of his commercial career. He had won the Academy Award for Best Director for Braveheart (1995). His commercial leading career across Lethal Weapon series, Ransom (1996), Conspiracy Theory (1997), and various other productions had established him as one of the most marketable American actors of the period. What Women Want operates as one of his clearest comedic productions before the substantial career complications that followed. The 2006 DUI incident and subsequent public statements damaged his commercial career substantially. The What Women Want performance occurred during his pre-DUI peak commercial period.
The performance commits to the comedic register without theatrical excess. Gibson does not overplay the comedy. He plays Nick as a man whose discovery is genuinely confusing rather than as conventional comedic protagonist. The choice is correct for the structural setup. Excessive comic exaggeration would have damaged the dramatic foundation the second and third acts require. Gibson’s restraint supports the film’s broader register.
The Helen Hunt Performance
Helen Hunt plays Darcy Maguire at substantial dramatic register. The performance integrates professional capability with personal vulnerability. Darcy is professionally accomplished but personally lonely. She has been operating at substantial career intensity for decades. She has accumulated professional achievements at the cost of personal connection. Hunt plays both qualities without making either dominant.
Hunt was at the height of her commercial career during the production. As Good as It Gets (1997) had won her the Academy Award for Best Actress two years earlier. Her television work on Mad About You (1992-1999) had established her commercial visibility. What Women Want continued her commercial leading work at substantial register. Subsequent productions across the 2000s and 2010s have been less commercially consistent. The What Women Want role remains one of her stronger romantic comedy performances.
The character’s emotional vulnerability is the performance’s specific contribution. Darcy could have been played as professional hardness that Nick eventually breaks through. Hunt plays Darcy as already vulnerable underneath the professional capability. The audience reads her loneliness through small physical and verbal choices throughout the runtime. Nick’s ability to hear her thoughts confirms what the audience has been reading from the visual evidence. The performance supports both readings simultaneously at substantial craft.
For Writers
What Women Want uses the supernatural premise of thought-hearing as engine for substantial character development. Nick begins as a man who cannot understand women because he has never bothered to listen to them. The supernatural capability forces him to listen continuously. The forced listening produces actual understanding that his earlier life had been denying him. The supernatural element operates as accelerant for character development that conventional narrative would have required substantially more time to produce. The lesson for writers is that supernatural or fantastical premises can serve as structural shortcuts for character development that would otherwise require extensive realistic dramatic setup. If your character’s transformation requires substantial experiential time, a supernatural element can compress the experience into accessible runtime. What Women Want commits to the supernatural premise throughout. The film operates as legitimate character drama that uses the fantastical premise as foundation rather than as decoration.
The Nancy Meyers Direction
Nancy Meyers directed What Women Want as her second solo feature after The Parent Trap (1998). The first directorial film had been a remake of the 1961 Hayley Mills film. What Women Want was her first substantial original directorial production. Subsequent productions including Something’s Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006), It’s Complicated (2009), The Intern (2015), and various other major productions established her as one of the most consistent commercial romantic comedy filmmakers of her era.
The Meyers signature includes substantial production design attention to upper-middle-class American interiors. The apartments and offices in her films are notably attractive in ways that exceed conventional romantic comedy production design. The choice has been studied as part of her commercial appeal. Audiences who attend her films receive substantial aspirational lifestyle imagery alongside the romantic comedy content. What Women Want established the visual approach that her subsequent career built on.
The direction handles the supernatural premise at substantial discipline. The thought-hearing sequences are integrated into the visual flow without obvious technical artifice. The audience hears women’s thoughts as voice-over dialogue mixed with the diegetic sound. The technique is straightforward but executed at substantial craft. The audience never loses track of which dialogue is being spoken aloud and which dialogue is being heard internally. The clarity supports the film’s broader register.
The Supporting Cast
Marisa Tomei plays Lola, a coffee shop worker who briefly dates Nick before the supernatural capability emerges. The performance is small but specific. Lola is the kind of woman Nick has been treating as disposable throughout his entire adult life. The character’s eventual confrontation with Nick about his treatment of her is one of the film’s clearest moments of moral reckoning. Tomei delivers the work at substantial restraint. Her broader career has included Academy Award nominations for My Cousin Vinny (1992, which she won), In the Bedroom (2001), and The Wrestler (2008).
Lauren Holly plays Gigi, Nick’s ex-wife. The character’s relationship with Nick provides substantial background for his current emotional limitations. Holly’s career across the 1990s included substantial commercial work in Dumb and Dumber (1994) and various other productions. The What Women Want role is one of her cleaner supporting performances of the period.
Mark Feuerstein plays Morgan Farwell, the young executive who attempts to navigate the post-Darcy office politics. The character provides substantial workplace comedy without becoming theatrical. Feuerstein’s broader career has included substantial television work and various other film roles.
Bette Midler plays Dr. J.M. Perkins, Nick’s therapist. The performance is brief but specific. The single scene allows Midler to deliver substantial comic capability while supporting the film’s broader dramatic content. The casting takes advantage of Midler’s substantial comedic reputation without requiring her to dominate the production. Midler’s broader filmography includes The Rose (1979), Beaches (1988), and various other major productions.
Alan Alda plays Dan Wanamaker, the senior agency executive who has been promoting Darcy. The performance is small but specific. Alda operates at substantial professional weight without theatrical excess. His broader career has been substantial across M*A*S*H (1972-1983) and various other major productions.
Ashley Johnson plays Alex Marshall, Nick’s teenage daughter. The character provides substantial emotional foundation for Nick’s eventual transformation. His relationship with his daughter has been damaged by his earlier life. The supernatural capability allows him to hear her actual emotional state for the first time. Johnson plays the character at substantial dramatic restraint. The performance is one of her stronger early roles.
The Thought-Hearing Premise
The supernatural premise operates as the film’s central comedic and dramatic engine. Nick can hear every woman’s thoughts continuously. He cannot turn the capability off. He hears thoughts in elevators, on streets, in coffee shops, in his office, in his daughter’s bedroom. The continuous hearing produces both comedy (the absurdity of constant internal monologue) and drama (the recognition of how much Nick has been missing about the women in his life).
The premise also operates as engine for advertising commentary. Nick uses the thought-hearing capability to develop advertising campaigns that actually engage female consumers. The capability gives him institutional advantage over Darcy in the workplace. He can hear her thoughts. She cannot hear his. The asymmetry produces ethical complications that the film documents at substantial depth. Nick is stealing Darcy’s ideas. Nick is also building a genuine relationship with her despite the institutional unfairness of the capability.
The eventual loss of the capability is the film’s structural resolution. Nick must decide what to do when the supernatural capability is gone. He has accumulated knowledge about women that the capability provided. He can use the knowledge to maintain his manipulation of Darcy. Or he can use the knowledge to support genuine relationship with her. The choice is the film’s central moral test. Nick chooses the second option. The choice is the structural payoff for the entire premise.
The Advertising Industry Setting
The Chicago advertising industry setting is more than background. The agency operates as legitimate workplace drama setting. The advertising work is documented at substantial accuracy. The Nike campaign that Darcy is supposed to develop becomes the film’s central professional conflict. Nick steals Darcy’s ideas through the thought-hearing capability. He presents the ideas as his own. The professional consequences operate as substantial subplot.
The setting allows the film to explore late-1990s American gender dynamics at substantial depth. Darcy has been brought into the agency because women are increasingly substantial consumer market. Nick has been operating at the agency because he understands male consumer psychology. The shift in market priorities produces specific workplace consequences. Older male executives are being displaced by younger female executives whose understanding of contemporary consumer markets is substantially greater. The film documents the shift through specific institutional detail.
The institutional commentary is one of the film’s quieter contributions. Most romantic comedies operate at the personal level without substantial institutional analysis. What Women Want integrates substantial workplace material with the personal romantic content. The audience receives both registers simultaneously. The combination produces specific dramatic depth that pure romantic comedy could not have provided.
For Writers
What Women Want integrates substantial workplace drama with conventional romantic comedy structure. The advertising industry setting is not just colorful background. The industry’s actual gender dynamics provide the structural foundation for the personal romantic conflict. Nick’s professional limitations and Darcy’s professional opportunities are the same problem viewed from different angles. The lesson for writers is that romantic comedies can operate at substantial institutional depth if the workplace material is taken seriously rather than treated as decoration. If your workplace setting could be replaced with any other workplace without damaging your plot, your workplace setting is decorative. If your workplace setting produces specific consequences for your characters that no other setting would produce, your workplace setting is structural. What Women Want commits to the advertising setting throughout. The choice provides specific dramatic depth that the structure requires.
The Ending
The film closes with Nick losing the supernatural capability. The capability had been the result of the bathroom electrical accident. A second accident at the closing reverses the original effect. Nick can no longer hear women’s thoughts. He has to operate on what he has learned during the period the capability was active.
Nick goes to Darcy’s apartment to repair the damage he has caused. He confesses what he has done with the supernatural capability. He had been stealing her ideas and using the information from her thoughts to manipulate her. He apologizes substantially. He proposes that they begin a genuine relationship without the institutional unfairness the capability had been producing. Darcy initially rejects him. She eventually accepts him after recognizing that his honesty about the manipulation is itself substantial change.
The closing image is Nick and Darcy together at her apartment. The image suggests that the relationship will develop into something the supernatural capability had been preventing. The audience receives the appropriate romantic comedy resolution. The choice is consistent with the film’s broader register. The institutional unfairness has been corrected through Nick’s honesty. The personal connection can now operate on appropriate foundation.
Craft: One Of The Most Commercially Successful Romantic Comedies Of The 2000s
Craft Note
What Women Want operates at substantial craft across every department. The Meyers direction handles the supernatural premise at substantial discipline. The Gibson lead performance integrates physical comedy with dramatic character development. The Hunt lead performance balances professional capability with personal vulnerability. The Tomei, Holly, Feuerstein, Midler, Alda, and Johnson supporting work anchors the broader ensemble. The Chicago advertising industry setting provides substantial workplace drama foundation. The thought-hearing premise operates as legitimate structural engine rather than as decoration.
The commercial success was substantial. The film made approximately $374 million worldwide on a $70 million budget. The financial return was exceptional. The film established Nancy Meyers as one of the most consistent commercial romantic comedy filmmakers of her era. Subsequent productions including Something’s Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006), It’s Complicated (2009), and The Intern (2015) built on the What Women Want foundation.
The 10+ rating reflects honest evaluation across multiple viewings. The film rewards rewatching. The Gibson and Hunt performances become deeper. The supporting work becomes more nuanced. The institutional commentary becomes more apparent. What Women Want is one of the most commercially successful romantic comedies of the 2000s and represents the foundation point for Nancy Meyers’s substantial subsequent career.
The Verdict
A 10+. What Women Want is one of the most commercially successful romantic comedies of the 2000s. Nancy Meyers directing her second solo feature. Mel Gibson at the peak of his pre-DUI commercial career. Helen Hunt in substantial dramatic register after her As Good as It Gets Academy Award win. Marisa Tomei, Bette Midler, Alan Alda in supporting work. Supernatural thought-hearing premise as legitimate structural engine. $374 million worldwide. The film established Meyers as a major commercial romantic comedy filmmaker.
FAQ
How does the thought-hearing premise work?
Nick has an electrical accident with a hair dryer in the bathtub. He wakes up able to hear women’s thoughts continuously. He cannot turn the capability off. The continuous hearing produces both comedy and drama. The premise operates as legitimate structural engine for character development rather than as decoration.
How does Mel Gibson’s performance work?
Gibson integrates physical comedy with dramatic character development. The early sequences require broad comic register including the famous bathroom waxing sequence. The middle and later sequences require substantial dramatic register as Nick begins recognizing the consequences of his earlier life. The performance occurred during Gibson’s pre-DUI peak commercial period.
How does Helen Hunt’s performance work?
Hunt integrates professional capability with personal vulnerability. Darcy is professionally accomplished but personally lonely. Hunt plays both qualities without making either dominant. The performance occurred two years after her As Good as It Gets (1997) Academy Award win for Best Actress.
How does Nancy Meyers’s direction work?
The direction handles the supernatural premise at substantial discipline. The thought-hearing sequences integrate into the visual flow without obvious technical artifice. The Meyers signature includes substantial production design attention to upper-middle-class American interiors. The visual approach established the foundation that her subsequent directorial career built on.
What is the advertising industry setting about?
The Chicago advertising industry setting provides legitimate workplace drama foundation. The agency’s gender dynamics produce specific institutional consequences. Darcy has been brought in because women are increasingly substantial consumer market. Nick has been operating because he understands male consumer psychology. The shift produces specific workplace conflict.
How does Marisa Tomei figure in?
Tomei plays Lola, a coffee shop worker who briefly dates Nick before the supernatural capability emerges. The character is the kind of woman Nick has been treating as disposable throughout his entire adult life. Her eventual confrontation with Nick is one of the film’s clearest moments of moral reckoning.
What is the bathroom waxing sequence?
Nick is attempting various female-product testing assignments that Darcy has given the team. He uses pantyhose, waxes his legs, and has the accident with the hair dryer. The sequence operates at substantial physical comedy register. Gibson commits to the physical comedy without theatrical excess.
How does the ending work?
Nick loses the supernatural capability through a second accident. He has to operate on what he has learned. He goes to Darcy’s apartment to repair the damage he has caused through stealing her ideas and manipulating her. He confesses substantially. The choice is the film’s central moral test. Nick passes the test. The institutional unfairness has been corrected.
Should I watch this if I have concerns about Mel Gibson’s personal history?
The What Women Want performance occurred during his pre-DUI peak commercial period. The 2006 DUI incident and subsequent public statements damaged his commercial career substantially. Audiences who can separate the production from the subsequent personal history will receive substantial value. The film itself operates at substantial craft regardless of the subsequent biographical complications.