Helen Hunt Filmography Part 12: What Women Want

Helen Hunt getting what she wants in 2000.

For a movie about what women want, no one said a damn word about pockets. 

In Helen Hunt’s third movie of 2000, we have What Women Want. We continue the trend of movies that are presumably about women, but told from the male point of view. Mel Gibson plays Nick Marshall, a notorious misogynist and ladies man who works for an advertising firm in Chicago.

When his company decides to go after women-centric accounts, they hire a new Creative Director, Darcy Maguire (Hunt). rather than giving him the promotion he expected.

She sends the entire team home with an assortment of women’s products–lipstick, hose, bras, nail polish, waxing kit, etc.--for everyone to try and come up with marketing ideas for. 

We need to take a moment to appreciate that when Nick needs to feel MORE masculine, he puts on a fedora and dances around his apartment a la Fred Astaire while listening to Sinatra belt “I Won’t Dance”.

While seeking inspiration by trying on all the products, Nick and his hair dryer fall in the bathtub, and he is partially electrocuted. When he wakes up in the morning, he can hear what all the women around him are thinking. 

This is a very promising premise, but the movie spends a little too long setting it up. There’s a lot of redundancy in the first third of the film, and rather than focusing on the humor of Nick realizing that most women think he’s terrible, too much time is spent on him trying to reverse the situation. The result is that much of the momentum is lost in the beginning.

Eventually Bette Midler helps him realize that his condition is a blessing, not a curse.

It takes a while for Nick to realize that with this great power comes great responsibility, and he spends much of the movie doing the equivalent of using his spidey senses to cage fight in a ski mask. He does Marisa Tomei very dirty, which is not something we tolerate on this channel.

Primarily Nick uses his ability to steal all of Darcy’s ideas—and her heart.

He undermines her work on the upcoming Nike campaign, which is the make or break point in her job. His efforts are ultimately successful, and she loses her job. 

As he spends more time hearing the thoughts of women and realizing how unappealing his behavior is, he slowly has a change of attitude.

This particularly effects his relationship with his 15 year old daughter who is staying with him for a couple of weeks. As he understands his daughter, he’s able to actually parent her and be a support and guide.

He spends more time with women in the office listening to their relationship problems and sharing his insights into men with them. On the one had I applaud the character learning and changing, but on the other hand “seeing women as full human beings” is a really low bar.

There are two scenes that elevate this above a forgettable rom com.

In the first Darcy invites Nick out for drinks, and he’s reached the point in his arc where he begins to appreciate her talent and her humanity and to feel bad about what he is doing to her. He compliments her on being forthright and speaking her mind. She replies that most people don’t appreciate that quality in her.

She confides that her marriage failed because her ex couldn’t handle her success. He felt threatened by her talent and ambition and became competitive. Rather than loving her for all of who she is, he forced he to hide parts of herself.

This is a touching and vulnerable scene for Helen Hunt, and gives the movie an emotional compass. It would be better if this had come earlier, and been more developed, but here it is.

The second scene comes at the end. When Nick comes to Darcy to confess and apologize, it’s actually a good apology. He acknowledges his sense of entitlement and admits that he deliberately took advantage of her.

It shouldn’t be remarkable, but a genuine apology without excuses or defenses is rare in life and in the movies. Having Nick actually change, both in his attitudes and in his actions, really elevates this movie.

It’s not perfect, by far, but I really like this movie. It would certainly be better if it centered on the women’s perspectives, and had more actual insights into the challenges women face and what they want.

Besides Helen Hunt is at peak sexy and empowered.

So really what more could women want?